Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Schools Assistance Amendment (Financial Assistance) Bill 2011. But, before I do, I would like to respond on the record to a couple of points that the member for McEwen made about the Building the Education Revolution in reference to me. I agree wholeheartedly that the approach taken to funding Catholic and independent schools where the school parents, principal and community have been involved has led to some very, very good results. The sad thing about the BER is that, where public schools have been involved, principals and communities have not been allowed to have any say in what happens and that has led to some disastrous results.

In the Herald Sun on Monday, this was again highlighted, unfortunately. Students at the Waubra Primary School have been in portable classrooms for a year now and, for the last three or four months, they have been looking out at their brand-new BER school while sitting in their portable classrooms on the oval—which means they cannot play footy or cricket—waiting to get into their BER project. It is all there for them to see, but it is surrounded by wire. The trouble is that no-one seems to be able to arrange to get the fittings in there so that the students can move in. This inefficiency and waste is another indictment of this program. Every day, when those students arrive at school, they are reminded of the Prime Minister’s incompetence because this BER program, which has seen such waste, is her program and it is, sadly, still not delivering the right outcomes for our public schools in Victoria, which so badly need them, and for our local communities. I wanted to get that on the record so that the member for McEwen is not in any way able to distort the picture of what is happening at the moment.

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