The Minister for Employment Participation and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Government Service Delivery, Senator Arbib, today failed to put to bed serious questions about preferential funding of Labor-held electorates through the so-called Building the Education Revolution program.
Following revelations that Labor-held metropolitan electorates received, on average, double the amount of funding under the Science and Language Centres for 21st Century Secondary Schools program than Coalition seats, Senator Scott Ryan today called on the government to come clean on its funding decisions.
“Minister Gillard and Senator Arbib have both relied on the institution of an independent panel to defend their conduct in allocating funding to these projects,” Senator Ryan said.
However, in response to a question this afternoon in the Senate, Senator Arbib refused to confirm that the advice of the panel and Department was adhered to in the case of each project considered.
“In the face of such skewed distribution of funds, the Minister has failed to confirm that the decisions of this panel were adopted by the Government on each and every occasion,” Senator Ryan said.
Furthermore, the Minister refused to rule out that any discussions have taken place between his office and ALP Secretariat staff regarding these projects. “The Government must come clean and explain this profound bias in the application of funds across Australia’s schools.”