Philip Ruddock (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have a question for the Minister representing the Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Jobs and Workplace Relations. Is the minister aware of the case of the Cowan Public School, in the Berowra electorate, who requested a new school hall under the Building the Education Revolution program but were instead given two classrooms? Now a demountable classroom they have been using as a school hall is being removed, leaving them with no school hall at all. In the light of this example of quite inadequate management in the school hall program, will the government commit to supporting a judicial inquiry into Building the Education Revolution?

Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question. The answer to the last part of his question is no, we will not be committing to a judicial inquiry. The reason is that we have been totally transparent in the way in which the funding for this program has been used.

I was asked the other day a similar question by the member for Fairfax as to whether I was aware of a similar complaint to this. Can I just make this point so that there is no misunderstanding from the other side. There is a process in place in which, if there are complaints, those complaints can be referred, and it is called the Orgill committee. It has open terms of reference that enable all of these issues to be dealt with so that we can not only determine whether there is value for money but address the problems. My point to both of those members and anyone seeking to ask is that I would urge them in future to ask themselves the question: has this complaint been referred to the Orgill committee, and have they pursued it through a process that we have set up to address these issues? Have they referred it? Because, as it turns out, the complaint of the member for Fairfax has not been referred to the Orgill committee.

So do not come in here and moralise about committees of inquiry if you are not even prepared to use the process that exists now. Use the process; that is what it is there for. We have been addressing the problems in the past. If all you want to do is come in here and raise points of order or issues that have been raised in the newspaper, you are not servicing your electorates properly.

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! No minister should see that as a precedent for argument.

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! That was why it was not a precedent.