Paul's Blog: Abbotsleigh, BER – and a few salient facts that Julia Gillard neglected to mention

Yesterday Education Minister Gillard criticised me in Parliament for speaking at the opening of the Evelyn Forster Wing Junior School Resource Centre and Early Learning Centre at Abbotsleigh, the well known girls’ independent school in my electorate of Bradfield.

According to Ms Gillard I should not have attended, because the project was funded under “Building the Education Revolution” (BER) – the Rudd Government’s rushed and poorly administered program spending over $16 billion on new school halls and classroom blocks.

There are a few salient facts Ms Gillard neglected to mention.

Nearly half of the cost of the project was funded by the school.  In fact, the school’s own money was the single largest component of funding for this project – larger than the BER funding.

There was a third funding source that Ms Gillard forgot to mention.  Just a few weeks ago her junior Minister Kate Ellis announced the dumping of Labor’s election promise to build 260 early learning centres on school grounds so as to ‘end the double drop-off.’

The program has stopped mid-flight, with only 38 built.  Perhaps this was why Ms Gillard was reluctant to inform the Parliament that one of the 38 funded centres formed part of this project at Abbotsleigh?

Oh, and there was one other thing Ms Gillard failed to mention.  Before Abbotsleigh invited me to open this project, they had first put in a request to Ms Gillard herself.  They waited for a response…and waited…and waited.

After months of waiting, they concluded that Mrs Gillard was not going to make herself available – and so they asked their local Member of Parliament instead.

If Ms Gillard had attended the opening, she would have been struck by the scale of the project – it incorporates the early learning centre for babies as young as six months, and a large number of classrooms and other facilities for kindergarten, year 1 and year 2.

It is a powerful demonstration that independent and catholic schools in New South Wales have received much better value for money than state schools.

Independent schools are able to manage their own projects – including choosing their own builder through a competitive selection process they run themselves.

This is exactly what Abbotsleigh has done – and why they have got such good value for money.

By contrast, under BER state schools are forced to accept a centrally appointed project manager and are unable to manage their own procurement process.  This is one reason why so much money is being wasted.

I was delighted to support Abbotsleigh by sharing this very important day with them – just as I will continue to support every school in my electorate, be they state, catholic or independent.