Kay Hull (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education. Is the minister aware that the Brungle Primary School in my electorate was allocated $250,000 under her school hall stimulus program? Is the minister also aware that the school obtained an independent quote to build a new library for $75,000? Instead, they have been told they must use a state-appointed contractor to build a library which is smaller and costs $250,000. Does the minister agree that this bungle in Brungle could have been avoided had the school self-managed their project?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for her question and her very clever alliteration. That is an innovation for question time. I am aware that these claims have been raised about Brungle. I am aware that they received some publicity. I am also aware that there is a question about the quotes as opposed to the actual costs involved for Brungle. What I would say to the member is: yes, I am aware that an investigation has been conducted into the claims about the quotes versus the actualities, and I am very happy to provide the member with details should she want further information. The school, as I understand it, is in the electorate of Eden-Monaro, so obviously the member for that electorate in this place will be very well aware of the matter. I can also say to her that, should she or any member of the school community believe that further work needs to be done on this question, they can refer the matter to the Building the Education Revolution Implementation Taskforce, which has been set up with the purpose of looking at these questions. It is led by a leading Australian businessperson who is of course travelling to schools as we speak and dealing with any questions schools may have.

I remind the member—and she knows this from her own local school community; I am very well aware that she does—that, if we look across the Building the Education Revolution program, we see it has involved 9,500 schools and 24,000 projects. There are many, many school communities, including in the member’s own electorate, who are delighted with their project, delighted with the investment and delighted with the support that it has provided to local jobs, to the extent that there are concerns that there be a clear process for addressing these issues through the implementation task force. I also remind the member that, if we had determined to go the way that she indicated with her vote in this House and that the Leader of the Opposition indicated with his vote in this House and not provided economic stimulus, we would see a couple of hundred thousand more Australians unemployed and we would not see one dollar spent on the schools in her electorate. I know the member who has asked this question reasonably well, and I do not genuinely believe that she wanted to see zero invested in her local schools.