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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-05-06 Daily Xml
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BUILDING THE EDUCATION REVOLUTION

Mr PISONI (Unley) (16:53): Will the Premier advise whether his government has a mechanism in place for collating details of problems with Building the Education Revolution projects or for providing details of costings to principals and governing councils at schools where projects are taking place; and, if not, why not?

The Hon. P.F. CONLON (Elder—Minister for Transport, Minister for Infrastructure, Minister for Energy) (16:53): Can I say—

Mr Pisoni interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Unley will come to order! The Minister for Transport.

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: Bad news! Here is the member for Unley. We do know that the Liberals opposed this funding going to South Australian schools. We do know that. I do note that the Unley Primary School does have a BER building, but I don't notice—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: They are extremely rude. The Building the Education Revolution program in South Australia should be a matter of pride for South Australians, because it is being done better in South Australia than it is being done anywhere. I invite the Leader of the Opposition, if she has any evidence at all, instead of making interjections, to provide it and ask the question herself. The member for Unley asks: where is the Premier? Instead of interjections, let us get a question, with some evidence, from the Leader of the Opposition, not just anger or disappointment. The truth is that the Building the Education Revolution program, run by Rod Hook and assisted by Bob Boorman (who, of course, has also been the subject of extremely unfair criticism from the Liberal opposition), is doing an outstanding job. The program is being run on an administrative cost of 1.5 per cent and is delivering projects for hundreds of schools across South Australia in a timely and affordable fashion.

I am quite prepared to give any member of the opposition a full and comprehensive briefing on how the project works. It is working outstandingly in South Australia because of the very good relationship between the government, the people operating it and the private sector, and I think if opposition members were to talk to people in the private sector they would understand that for themselves. If they want to know how well this is going, what I will say is that we welcome any scrutiny and investigation of this program, because it will show that Rod Hook and the people in the office of infrastructure have done an outstanding job and delivered to schools.

I will tell you how many complaints I have had across my desk from these schools. How many have come across my desk? None; zero! So, opposition members can talk it down and oppose buildings for their own schools. They can talk it down, but I take pride in the work South Australians have done on this—South Australian public servants and South Australian firms. I welcome members coming to get a briefing on it.

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