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23

The BER (Building Education Revolution) is quickly turning into the Blatant Enormous Rip-off. They are talking to us in the shopping malls, they are writing to us, they are ringing us and emailing, the results are in. Australians do not like being financially “touched” and they feel the Labor Party has once more proven that economically it could not manage a chook raffle in a pub on a Friday night.

A civil engineer has told Senator Barnaby Joyce today that he is astounded that the public purse is being rorted to such a massive extent. He gives the example that at the Hendra State School in Brisbane, a proposed library is set to cost $628,000 for construction. This means that the library is costing the taxpayers of Australia over $4000 per square metre. On top of this is another $194,362 for consultant fees and design costs. Compare this to the average house. A private builder would be happy with $1500 per square metre and provide a better finished product. The library will not be air-conditioned and is just a basic design. So how on earth does anyone get a cost at over twice the going rate?
How can Mr Tanner Mr Rudd and Mr Swan laud their economic management expertise and hold a straight face at the same time? You would have thought that after the ceiling insulation debacle and the ever escalating mountainous debt that prudence would have made them slightly more cautious in how they dealt with the money being borrowed to finance the school hall jaunt, as silly as the idea is. But the proof is in the pudding. No one seems to care. The curtains are open but no one’s financially home. They don’t care how the money is spent and they don’t know how the money will be repaid and they have no idea what money is actually worth. The mantra of go hard, go early, go household also must have included go into debt into your eyeballs and fall out of your financial tree.
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# Lorikeet
Wednesday, March 24, 2010 5:08 PM
I think the answer to this is fairly easy. Check out who is doing the designing and the building. If it isn't a giant overseas owned corporation, then I'm a monkey's uncle.

Having an escalating mountainous debt is just part of the plan to redistribute wealth and the world's populations, according to the corporate neo-communist plan, which has also become a nasty shade of Green.

The leader of the ACTU has gone to join an International Council of Trade Unions. This will mean "slave labour" rates of pay and working conditions for all, right across the globe.

"The proof of the pudding is in the eating."

No one has even seen the pudding that corporate neo-communists want to dish up yet, nor are they ever likely to receive a slice of anything they are going to enjoy.

When Tanner, Rudd and Swan go to bed at night, they have a subliminal message playing which says:

"Screw the country as quickly as possible, and keep kissing the backsides of your corporate mates. Help them to break a world record on collecting consumption taxes. Don't worry if hundreds of thousands of people end up living in tents."

The curtains are only open so neo-communists can dive in.
# SV
Friday, March 26, 2010 7:22 PM
I am writing to express my dismay at removal of Senator Joyce from the shadow finance portfolio. He is one of the few MPs with no-nonsense approach to finance and debt.

Given a choice of minister between a former union boss Swan and a country accountant Joyce, I would pick the country accountant any day.

Senator Joyce asked Ken Henry very valid questions about debt levels and interest rates, which the latter failed to answer professionally and impartially enough. It is a pity the media made a mockery of that session.

The school hall building program is a colossal waste of public money, bordering on criminal. It certainly requires examination by the auditor-general.
# SV
Friday, March 26, 2010 7:59 PM
I am writing to express my dismay at removal of Senator Joyce from the shadow finance portfolio. He is one of the few MPs with no-nonsense approach to finance and debt.

Given a choice of minister between a former union boss Swan and a country accountant Joyce, I would pick the country accountant any day.

Senator Joyce asked Ken Henry very valid questions about debt levels and interest rates, which the latter failed to answer professionally and impartially enough. It is a pity the media made a mockery of that session.

The school hall building program is a colossal waste of public money, bordering on criminal. It certainly requires examination by the auditor-general.
# Brendon
Sunday, March 28, 2010 12:28 PM
As a sub-consultant providing services to the BER program I can assure you that the work was a 'God send', at a time when my industry was suffering a construction drought.

As a tax payer I am very angry about the waste I've seen. The actual implementation of the program is bogged down in its' own paperwork, top heavy, multi-layered administration with seemingly no regard for commonsense.

While I understand that the BER program has attempted to 'share' the work amongst the construction/consultancy community - the actual application has been extremely poor. This is particulary noticable in the delivery to remote area schools. I have 'waved' to fellow consultants on the road between Townsville & Mt Isa. I was on my way to Mt Isa to provide my services - He was returning from Julia Creek after providing the same services to a different consultant within the BER program. We were both charging our respective clients (in the end the Australian tax payer) for our travel time/costs. I know that this situation is being duplicated by consultants chartering flights to visit construction sites in Qld. Why not award one consultant all the projects within a geographical area & eliminate all this duplication.

As the different 'rounds' of the program were 'rolled out' I have been engaged to visit the same schools again & again. Surley there must have been some knowledge of what was coming up in the next round. Why couldn't I have done both jobs for that school during the first visit. More waste.

Some simply consideration of the size of the State & the travel/establishment costs would have saved the tax payer considerable funds. Funds that could have been spent on our kids.

# Lorikeet
Monday, March 29, 2010 3:19 PM
Brendan:

Yes, I'm sure the work was a Godsend, but who caused the financial fiasco that followed?

If the federal government had simply sent a blanket email or letter to every school principal in Australia, asking him/her what was most greatly needed up to a certain dollar value, you can bet your bottom dollar that an excellent reply would have put together post haste.

But here is the difference between building new school halls and libraries (that were often not even needed) and the provision of desks, chairs, sporting equipment, musical instruments, new photocopies, computers and day-to-day consumables.

Would Julia Gillard or Kevin Rudd want to put a commemorative plaque with their names on it where your child is about to plonk his schoolbag or his backside?

Would they want these monuments to self-congratulation hidden away in a back office somewhere?

Would they want them drawn on, cut up, coloured in or even thrown out?

Of course not! They want those plaques on the School Hall or Library where no one can miss them. Or maybe on the front gate at the main entrance, even though no gates were supplied.
# Anonymous
Monday, April 12, 2010 5:32 PM
http://barnabyisright.com/2010/04/12/barnaby-attacks-julias-ber/
# Anonymous
Monday, April 12, 2010 5:33 PM
http://barnabyisright.com/2010/04/12/barnaby-attacks-julias-ber/
# Peter Cameron
Monday, April 12, 2010 7:43 PM
Hi Barnaby
This BER is set to be a much larger rort than the ceiling insulation program. I have observed you stirring the pot on this massive waste of public funds and I support you 100%.
Stick it up them every chance you get as I would like nothing better than to watch Gillard squirm in her seat as she tries to justify this.
# Lorikeet
Tuesday, April 13, 2010 5:03 PM
Yes, I watched Julia Gillard's reaction very carefully. She usually excels at handling the media, but Sunday Night's program definitely dealt her a body blow.

We need to get these idiots out of the parliament ASAP.

Kevin Rudd seems to have come up with another of his "ingenious" ideas. This time it's about Aged Care.

He says the federal government is taking it over, and in the next breath he says he will offer low interest loans to service providers.

?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Everyone knows we have a huge foreign debt, but now he wants to further empower corporations by letting them have access to more (borrowed) money. If he thinks The Macquarie Group has any intention of spending more money on frail elderly people instead of pocketing it themselves, he is having another one of his pipe dreams.

Oh Christ, I've had enough of these idiots. Maybe I should run for the parliament myself.
# Murray Buzza
Wednesday, April 14, 2010 4:44 PM
Whilst I was disappointed with the change of portfolio for you,methinks Kevin and Julia have bowled you up a googly over this school rorts program.I look forward to you highlighting a new Julia rort every week until the next election.Keep up your good work.
# Ron Martin
Wednesday, May 19, 2010 12:48 PM
G'day Barnaby it would be interesting to find out how much of the BER money is being skimmed of to the unions or to be used to fund the up coming state and federal elections.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010 7:41 PM
BER (Building Education Revolution) was started with the view to develop the schools and colleges and bring about a revolution in the area of education. But now the sad part is that it has lost its path and has become a revolution which is eating away the money from the public. In the name of such a revolution the Labor Party is putting a heavy burden of tax on the Australians. A proper checking should be done on how the money is spent.
# Lorikeet
Wednesday, September 01, 2010 10:39 AM
chicago plumbing:

The government is co-operating with global bodies to send both its own coffers and the wallets of ordinary citizens into receivership. The relevant agreements have been signed over the years by the Labor Party since the end of World War II.

When I was giving out how-to-vote cards at the local primary school, I ran into a woman from the P&C who had come to rescue one of her signs advertising a fete on 4 September, after disrespectful Labor Party nongs had completely covered it with their bunting.

I asked how her school had fared under the BER, and she said the P&C had a very shrewd woman who didn't part with a single dollar of funding without an equal exchange in building materials and labour.

On polling day, there were 2 buildings under construction, and we were giving out the HTV cards under a new covered area.

I think we've all heard of plenty of instances in which schools (and taxpayers) have been ripped off by charlatans, and schools getting buildings they neither wanted nor needed, instead of something more useful.

But here is my greatest concern. The Labor Party wants to amalgamate schools and turn existing schools into ghettos, instead of building new schools where they are needed.

The local school (mentioned above) adjoins a state forest. There are now buildings only metres away from virgin bush, including one currently under construction, which could easily be burned down in a bushfire.

Over the last 7 years, every nook and cranny has been filled with play equipment and shaded areas in this overcrowded school.

I have also been trying to get a new high school at Samford ever since I have lived in this area, some 24 years! Now new primary schools are also needed, but do not seem to be forthcoming.

My children now aged 36 and 35 attended Ferny Grove High School which was also overcrowded when we moved here. But at least then the disciplinary and educational standards were second to none.

Over the years, the school population has burgeoned to such an extent that it has been divided into 5 smaller schools, each representing one year level.

When my youngest son, now 18, attended the same school, I was completely appalled at the terrible disciplinary standards, curricula and parental attitudes.

The Labor Party here in Queensland seems to have destroyed any real societal values, hog-tied our teachers so that any kind of discipline has fallen by the wayside, and dumbed down curricula.

They have deliberately done this so they can empower a large corporation (such as The Macquarie Group) and worship them as saviours of our education system, when the real aim is to break the govt financially and rip off the parents with high school fees, while rationing everything.

"What's that, son? You don't have enough paper left in your exercise book to finish your essay? Tough luck! You have already used up your quota of exercise books for the term. I suggest you finish writing it on the back of your hand, and in future, learn to write a lot smaller! In the meantime, I will sign you up for the new Green Cadet Corps."

When all of our schools have been corporately neo-communised, the govt will start taxing the churches to get them out of Education, Hospitals and Aged Care.

Wages will go down and workloads will increase.

Welcome to the Asia-Pacific Economic Union run by Chairman Rudd, as our World Sector Leader in a global government run by corporations.

Tony Abbott called him Kevin-o-Lemon, which I wouldn't dispute, but I guess he forgot about his real role in the citrus orchard:

Kevin-O-Mandarin.

Thursday, October 21, 2010 7:03 PM
Everyone knows we have a huge foreign debt, but now he wants to further empower corporations by letting them have access to more (borrowed) money.
Thursday, October 28, 2010 7:53 PM
BER (Building Education Revolution) was started with the view to develop the schools and colleges and bring about a revolution in the area of education. But now the sad part is that it has lost its path and has become a revolution which is eating away the money from the public. In the name of such a revolution the Labor Party is putting a heavy burden of tax on the Australians. A proper checking should be done on how the money is spent.

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