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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-04-05 Daily Xml
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ECHUNGA SCHOOL PROJECT

Mr PISONI (Unley) (14:59): My question is also to the Minister for Infrastructure. Why did the government pay the builder of the Echunga BER project, who went into administration, up-front, prior to completing the project? Will funds lost be recovered? When will the building be completed?

The Hon. P.F. CONLON (Elder—Minister for Transport, Minister for Infrastructure) (14:59): I congratulate the member for Unley for—after a year and some 600 successful builds—finding something to complain about in the BER program.

Mr Pisoni interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: Can I say that the Building the Education Revolution was a challenge from the commonwealth for us to build, from memory, some 670 builds. It was somewhere north of $900 million of work in an absolutely historic, an absolutely heroic, time frame.

Mr WILLIAMS: I rise on a point of order. As interesting as this might be, the question was specific to the builder who went into administration before completing the work at Echunga and had already been paid for the work.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! There was no indication—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! No quarrels across the floor. There was no indication of the project that the member's question involved anyway. So, I am listening carefully.

Mr Williams: Yes there was. The member said—

The SPEAKER: I did not hear that bit.

Mr Williams interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! I do not see how you can say that building infrastructure in schools is not relevant to the question. Minister.

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: For the benefit of the man with three votes—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: Standing order 98 says that one must answer the substance of the question and not engage in argument. I am not engaging in argument, and if you believe that talking about the Building the Education Revolution project, of which this is a project, is not answering the substance of the question, then I am afraid that you did not deserve all three of those votes you got.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: I would point out that interjections are also out of order, Madam Speaker.

Mr Williams interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for MacKillop, I warn you.

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: As I pointed out, it was a series of builds in an absolutely historic and heroic time frame in which South Australia did better than anywhere else. Why did we do better?

Mr Pisoni: Well, release the information.

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: Release the information? Don't worry you don't need the information. You can just make your own—you ask Martin Hamilton-Smith—you can just make your own. Make your own, sunshine!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr Williams: What are you hiding?

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: What are we hiding? Can I point out to the man with three votes that this program was audited at a national level.

Mr PENGILLY: Point of order, ma'am: standing order 127.

The SPEAKER: I don't think that was personally reflecting on one member. But I am sure that the minister knows the standing orders enough not to reflect on anyone. Minister.

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: I am certainly not reflecting on the member for MacKillop. I think his colleagues with his three votes did that enough. I do not need to make any reflections upon him.

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister will return to the question.

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: It was a program that was audited at a national level, as a result, as I understand it, of requests from the opposition at a national level, and the findings of that audit reflected extremely well on South Australia. Can I go on to point out why we did so well—

An honourable member interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: I have all day. The reason that we did very well in that program was because of the very strong working relationship between this government and the building industry, and I think if you go and ask the Master Builders, for example, they have described this program as a saviour for their industry. You, having ignored all the great successes of businesses in this state to find one that you do not like—and can I say that, at the Unley Primary School, where we built a building, despite you scratching around trying to find something wrong, everyone and the neighbours have been very pleased with what was done there. But can I say that if the biggest difficulty that we have is this matter in Echunga then I, at least, have some pride in the South Australian building industry and the management of—

Mr Williams: Why don't you answer the question?

The SPEAKER: Order!

An honourable member: He's getting to it.

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: I'm not getting to it, I'm telling you.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: I have answered it. And here's the thing for the member for MacKillop: one day, God forbid, they might get into government and then they will get to answer the questions the way they like, but while they are in opposition, so richly deserved—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: The only Liberal Party in the country that can't win an election it seems—but while they are in opposition they get to ask the questions and I get to answer them, within the standing orders in the way I like, and the way I like to answer it is to point with pride to the success of the BER program in South Australia, and point with pride to South Australian builders and South Australian departments—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: —and I don't care how much noise you make because, by golly, we're good and we're going to keep being good.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Florey.

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