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The Australian: Who's the idiot now? MP feeling vindicated over BER complaints
WHEN Liberal MP Paul Fletcher told parliament in March that costs had blown out on stimulus building works at a school in his electorate, he was called an "idiot" by Julia Gillard, who told him to get his facts right.
The then education minister responded to him in parliament in March by telling him to get his facts right.
But Mr Fletcher, the Liberal member for Bradfield in Sydney's north, wasn't feeling an idiot yesterday when the first report into the Building the Education Revolution scheme revealed that same public school failed the value-for-money assessment.
Gordon East Public School was one of 13 public schools in NSW that received a score of zero out of 10 for value for money after costs were analysed for their BER projects.
Gordon East's $1.84 million classrooms also failed "fit for purpose" quality assessment tests, receiving a score of one out of three after a number of "defects and issues" were identified during the BER taskforce's October visit.
Mr Fletcher told The Australian yesterday that taxpayers had a right to expect the government to spend their money wisely and the report confirmed that "no such care was taken" with the BER spending.
"From my discussions today, I know parents at Gordon East have this question: what happens next?" Mr Fletcher said.
"In other words, it is all very well that the taskforce has confirmed what was long suspected -- this school has been ripped off -- but what does Julia Gillard plan to do about it?"
Ms Gillard, who was then education minister, had accused Mr Fletcher of being "out of touch with his local community" for raising the issue in parliament.
But Mr Fletcher was acting on a complaint he received from the school's P&C, which was unhappy about the "limited communication" from the BER project organisers.
P&C president Katie Bonjer told The Australian yesterday the contractors initially said that the school would not be receiving water tanks, security and classroom furniture as promised, because the budget had blown out.
But after the October holidays, "all these things were there".
"They said we could have them now because we were under budget, but I guess we will never know if it was really because we raised the complaint," Ms Bonjer said.
"A lot of our complaint originally was because of that lack of communication and because we didn't feel that we were getting value for money."
