Mrs JUDY HOPWOOD (Hornsby) [1.15 p.m.]: Unfortunately, the Building the Education Revolution [BER] in my electorate is turning into the Government scraps outdoor learning revolution. Hornsby North Public School has fallen victim to the Government's poor management of the education revolution funding with news that its covered outdoor learning area [COLA] will have to be scrapped. This news follows another local school's report that New South Wales Labor Government was wasting up to 25 per cent of these funds on bureaucracy and management fees. Documents show that hundreds of New South Wales schools may have to cancel or scale down their projects under the BER as a result of cost blowouts. Sadly, Hornsby North Public School is the first school in my electorate that has reported that this happened. I recently received an email from a parents and citizens association representative stating:

Well surprise—the project under the BER is estimated to come over budget by $600K so they are now deleting items that they promised we would get.

I don't really understand because $3.2M is a lot of money. I don't really understand how a 2 storey rectangle can cost so much. If we were building a house with the works it would be a very grand house indeed.

Unfortunately, the school has been told that it will have to lower its expectations. When the principal asked the project manager for a detailed breakdown of the costs she was told that that information could not be supplied. The project manager recently sent the principal a letter stating that the project would be downsized. The project manager's letter states:

As indicated the big ticket items to be deleted from your project are as follows:

1.) COLA & Associated works

A rainwater tank and solar panels were also deleted. The letter continues:

I would ask that you—

the principal—

reply back to this email that you acknowledge from a Budget point of view that the above items are required to be deleted to enable your school project to come in on budget.

As it happens, the parents and citizens representative's father is an engineer. He was asked for his opinion and he stated:

However, I don't know how the Principal can be qualified to "acknowledge from a Budget point of view that the above items are required to be deleted to enable your school project to come in on budget". I think that it is appalling and unprofessional to ask this. How can she know? I think that it may be a future let-out (for the Government...) so that they can somehow blame her, or say that she should accepted it. She should resist acknowledgement, particularly if she is not allowed to see the detailed breakdown of costs.

This engineer casts great doubt on the way in which the BER funding has been managed and asks various questions, including:

How is a market assessment relevant to a school project?

Site and location access—an allowance should have been made ...

Site Ground conditions—an allowance should have been made ...
Suspended floor systems—should have been included in the rates

Bush Fire assessment leading to a higher level of construction for the class rooms—I don't know that this site would require special construction for bush fires, and the additional cost should be small.

Relocation of Demountables to a temporary location during construction. This cost should be small and you would think that an allowance should have been included in the original budget.

The school had great expectations about the expenditure of $3.2 million. Once again, the broken Labor Government cannot handle this type of budget. Stimulus funding should be spent quickly to stimulate the economy. That will not happen if the State Government cannot allocate finances properly. The Rees Government's poor handling of the Commonwealth's BER program is further evidence of its financial incompetence and inability to deliver infrastructure projects. The school needs a covered outdoor learning area. I am sure that other local schools will be contacting me about overestimates. It is hard to understand that a budget that was allocated and projects that were put forward and accepted are now over budget and cannot be realised.