Govt rallies round Gillard on BER

The federal government will never admit its school building program has failed
because it wants to protect the image of Julia Gillard, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's
deputy, education minister and eventual successor, the coalition says.
As parents rallied outside Parliament House in Canberra on Wednesday to protest
waste and mismanagement in Labor's Building the Education Revolution (BER) scheme,
the pressure on Ms Gillard to fix problems with the scheme ramped up another notch.
But opposition education spokesman Christopher Pyne said even if the Implementation
Taskforce she commissioned to investigate the program's value for money did find
issues, the minister would never be allowed to take the blame for them.
"The government can't afford to let Julia Gillard wear this scandal, because she is
their one shot in the locker when Kevin Rudd falls over," he told the Macquarie
Radio Network.
The $14.1 billion Primary Schools for the 21st Century program, part of the BER,
aims to build new facilities such as classrooms and assembly halls across the
country.
However, it has been dogged by persistent claims of rorting.
A tiny canteen at Tottenham Central School in western NSW, which reportedly cost
$600,000 but can't fit a pie-warmer, is being touted as the latest BER blunder.
Mr Pyne and his leader Tony Abbott were taken on a virtual tour of the building,
after Tottenham parents built a mock-up of it on parliament's front lawns.
One parent, Rick Bennett, said the school had managed to erect a much larger
building with showers, disabled toilets and an office at a cost of just $400,000.
Mr Abbott said there was no doubt the scheme was a rip-off.
"It is worse than a scandal, it is getting close to a crime against the taxpayer,"
he said.
If the BER is even getting half the value for money it should be, Mr Abbott argued
that was because private schools were spending better than their public
counterparts.
"Independent schools aren't having to go through these appalling governmental
systems and they are certainly getting good value for their money," he said.
"If I come to government, what is left of this money will go to school communities
for them to spend.
"It will not be handed to the bureaucrats for them to waste the way they have been
up until now."
Meanwhile, Ms Gillard said if Implementation Taskforce chairman Brad Orgill did make
recommendations to improve the BER in August, it was not too late for Labor to act
on them.
"There are two more instalments of funding due to education authorities, one in
November 2010 and the second in March 2011," she told parliament.
"Consequently, the report we will receive from Mr Orgill in August and any
recommendations that he makes can be actioned."
A team of eight construction, education and legal experts has been appointed to
assist Mr Orgill's investigation.