❓ The WA parliamentary question concerns the backlog of maintenance at government schools. The Minister's response details the government's commitment to allocate $65 million to address the issue, contrasting it with the Opposition's proposed $20 million.
AnsweredQoN 482Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
What is the current figure for outstanding maintenance at Western Australian government schools and what does the Government intend to do to address the backlog? Mr A.J. CARPENTER
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for Albany for the question and for his pursuit of educational issues in his electorate. This is a nice little issue. On Tuesday I was expecting the shadow Minister for Education and Training to ask me questions about maintenance because it is obviously an important issue. Dr G.I. Gallop: There is a small matter of a $45 million difference. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: On 31 July the Leader of the Opposition, the former Minister for Education, announced at the Liberal Party state conference that the coalition Government would spend an additional $20 million over four years on the maintenance problem in our schools. He went on to criticise the current Government by saying that as a result of its management the maintenance backlog had more than doubled to $73 million, with only $9 million allocated this financial year for preventive work. In other words, $64 million was outstanding and the Liberal Party was prepared to put $20 million towards that. It is a $64 million problem and the Liberal Party wanted to spend $20 million on it. When we came to government, we said we would spend an additional $10 million on maintenance. However, the problem was so great that in the first three years the Government spent an additional $28 million. In that time, according to the Opposition, the maintenance backlog actually doubled, even though the Government spent more than $28 million extra. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: I call the members for Warren-Blackwood, Darling Range and Kingsley to order. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: To solve that issue the Opposition has said it will allocate $20 million over four years. Coincidentally, the Government has been working on the same problem. I admitted in Parliament that we had a $65 million problem. Just a short time later, on 8 August, having announced publicly that we needed to spend more money on school maintenance and having conceded that there was a $65 million problem, the Premier announced at Willetton Senior High School that the Government would allocate an additional $65 million to wipe out the school maintenance backlog problem. On the one hand, the Opposition has given a commitment to spend $20 million on school maintenance issues and, on the other hand, the Government has given a commitment to spend $65 million on the problem. Mr C.J. Barnett: What have you done for the past three and a half years? Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I can understand how the Opposition could make a half-baked promise like that and get gazumped by the Government, which is working on the issue and has promised to spend more than three times the amount of money on it than the Opposition has promised. I found the response of the shadow Minister for Education and Training interesting. When he was asked about it by The West Australian newspaper, he said that the $20 million that Mr Barnett had announced just the week before had been a minimum figure, which would have been increased. That evokes the imagery of a scene from the movie Crocodile Dundee , in which some people who were attempting to mug Mick Dundee in a New York subway using a small knife were confronted by Mick Dundee who said, “You call that a knife?” before pulling out a real knife. It also demonstrates how the Opposition works now and how it worked when it was in government. The former Government had a completely useless minister, the current member for Cottesloe - he is utterly useless - who had no idea of what was going on. He made promises to spend money hither and thither without worrying whether it would affect or solve the issues. Consequently, under the guidance of the financial whiz-kid, the member for Cottesloe, the education budget alone blew out by more than $300 million. It wrecked the state budget and drove the poor old Premier to distraction. He was unable to run a surplus budget because he had a minister about whom the current head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Western Australia was so concerned that he wrote letter to the then Premier telling him of the problems that the then minister was creating. This is the choice that now confronts people in Western Australia: an alternative Government that is promising to spend $20 million extra on education for the maintenance of schools or the current Government, which has committed an additional $65 million to eliminate the problem once and for all. I think it is a pretty easy choice for them to make.
Mr A.J. CARPENTER replied: I thank the member for Albany for the question and for his pursuit of educational issues in his electorate. This is a nice little issue. On Tuesday I was expecting the shadow Minister for Education and Training to ask me questions about maintenance because it is obviously an important issue. Dr G.I. Gallop: There is a small matter of a $45 million difference. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: On 31 July the Leader of the Opposition, the former Minister for Education, announced at the Liberal Party state conference that the coalition Government would spend an additional $20 million over four years on the maintenance problem in our schools. He went on to criticise the current Government by saying that as a result of its management the maintenance backlog had more than doubled to $73 million, with only $9 million allocated this financial year for preventive work. In other words, $64 million was outstanding and the Liberal Party was prepared to put $20 million towards that. It is a $64 million problem and the Liberal Party wanted to spend $20 million on it. When we came to government, we said we would spend an additional $10 million on maintenance. However, the problem was so great that in the first three years the Government spent an additional $28 million. In that time, according to the Opposition, the maintenance backlog actually doubled, even though the Government spent more than $28 million extra. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: I call the members for Warren-Blackwood, Darling Range and Kingsley to order. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: To solve that issue the Opposition has said it will allocate $20 million over four years. Coincidentally, the Government has been working on the same problem. I admitted in Parliament that we had a $65 million problem. Just a short time later, on 8 August, having announced publicly that we needed to spend more money on school maintenance and having conceded that there was a $65 million problem, the Premier announced at Willetton Senior High School that the Government would allocate an additional $65 million to wipe out the school maintenance backlog problem. On the one hand, the Opposition has given a commitment to spend $20 million on school maintenance issues and, on the other hand, the Government has given a commitment to spend $65 million on the problem. Mr C.J. Barnett: What have you done for the past three and a half years? Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I can understand how the Opposition could make a half-baked promise like that and get gazumped by the Government, which is working on the issue and has promised to spend more than three times the amount of money on it than the Opposition has promised. I found the response of the shadow Minister for Education and Training interesting. When he was asked about it by The West Australian newspaper, he said that the $20 million that Mr Barnett had announced just the week before had been a minimum figure, which would have been increased. That evokes the imagery of a scene from the movie Crocodile Dundee , in which some people who were attempting to mug Mick Dundee in a New York subway using a small knife were confronted by Mick Dundee who said, “You call that a knife?” before pulling out a real knife. It also demonstrates how the Opposition works now and how it worked when it was in government. The former Government had a completely useless minister, the current member for Cottesloe - he is utterly useless - who had no idea of what was going on. He made promises to spend money hither and thither without worrying whether it would affect or solve the issues. Consequently, under the guidance of the financial whiz-kid, the member for Cottesloe, the education budget alone blew out by more than $300 million. It wrecked the state budget and drove the poor old Premier to distraction. He was unable to run a surplus budget because he had a minister about whom the current head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Western Australia was so concerned that he wrote letter to the then Premier telling him of the problems that the then minister was creating. This is the choice that now confronts people in Western Australia: an alternative Government that is promising to spend $20 million extra on education for the maintenance of schools or the current Government, which has committed an additional $65 million to eliminate the problem once and for all. I think it is a pretty easy choice for them to make.
I thank the member for Albany for the question and for his pursuit of educational issues in his electorate. This is a nice little issue. On Tuesday I was expecting the shadow Minister for Education and Training to ask me questions about maintenance because it is obviously an important issue. Dr G.I. Gallop: There is a small matter of a $45 million difference. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: On 31 July the Leader of the Opposition, the former Minister for Education, announced at the Liberal Party state conference that the coalition Government would spend an additional $20 million over four years on the maintenance problem in our schools. He went on to criticise the current Government by saying that as a result of its management the maintenance backlog had more than doubled to $73 million, with only $9 million allocated this financial year for preventive work. In other words, $64 million was outstanding and the Liberal Party was prepared to put $20 million towards that. It is a $64 million problem and the Liberal Party wanted to spend $20 million on it. When we came to government, we said we would spend an additional $10 million on maintenance. However, the problem was so great that in the first three years the Government spent an additional $28 million. In that time, according to the Opposition, the maintenance backlog actually doubled, even though the Government spent more than $28 million extra. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: I call the members for Warren-Blackwood, Darling Range and Kingsley to order. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: To solve that issue the Opposition has said it will allocate $20 million over four years. Coincidentally, the Government has been working on the same problem. I admitted in Parliament that we had a $65 million problem. Just a short time later, on 8 August, having announced publicly that we needed to spend more money on school maintenance and having conceded that there was a $65 million problem, the Premier announced at Willetton Senior High School that the Government would allocate an additional $65 million to wipe out the school maintenance backlog problem. On the one hand, the Opposition has given a commitment to spend $20 million on school maintenance issues and, on the other hand, the Government has given a commitment to spend $65 million on the problem. Mr C.J. Barnett: What have you done for the past three and a half years? Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I can understand how the Opposition could make a half-baked promise like that and get gazumped by the Government, which is working on the issue and has promised to spend more than three times the amount of money on it than the Opposition has promised. I found the response of the shadow Minister for Education and Training interesting. When he was asked about it by The West Australian newspaper, he said that the $20 million that Mr Barnett had announced just the week before had been a minimum figure, which would have been increased. That evokes the imagery of a scene from the movie Crocodile Dundee , in which some people who were attempting to mug Mick Dundee in a New York subway using a small knife were confronted by Mick Dundee who said, “You call that a knife?” before pulling out a real knife. It also demonstrates how the Opposition works now and how it worked when it was in government. The former Government had a completely useless minister, the current member for Cottesloe - he is utterly useless - who had no idea of what was going on. He made promises to spend money hither and thither without worrying whether it would affect or solve the issues. Consequently, under the guidance of the financial whiz-kid, the member for Cottesloe, the education budget alone blew out by more than $300 million. It wrecked the state budget and drove the poor old Premier to distraction. He was unable to run a surplus budget because he had a minister about whom the current head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Western Australia was so concerned that he wrote letter to the then Premier telling him of the problems that the then minister was creating. This is the choice that now confronts people in Western Australia: an alternative Government that is promising to spend $20 million extra on education for the maintenance of schools or the current Government, which has committed an additional $65 million to eliminate the problem once and for all. I think it is a pretty easy choice for them to make.
Dr G.I. Gallop: There is a small matter of a $45 million difference. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: On 31 July the Leader of the Opposition, the former Minister for Education, announced at the Liberal Party state conference that the coalition Government would spend an additional $20 million over four years on the maintenance problem in our schools. He went on to criticise the current Government by saying that as a result of its management the maintenance backlog had more than doubled to $73 million, with only $9 million allocated this financial year for preventive work. In other words, $64 million was outstanding and the Liberal Party was prepared to put $20 million towards that. It is a $64 million problem and the Liberal Party wanted to spend $20 million on it. When we came to government, we said we would spend an additional $10 million on maintenance. However, the problem was so great that in the first three years the Government spent an additional $28 million. In that time, according to the Opposition, the maintenance backlog actually doubled, even though the Government spent more than $28 million extra. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: I call the members for Warren-Blackwood, Darling Range and Kingsley to order. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: To solve that issue the Opposition has said it will allocate $20 million over four years. Coincidentally, the Government has been working on the same problem. I admitted in Parliament that we had a $65 million problem. Just a short time later, on 8 August, having announced publicly that we needed to spend more money on school maintenance and having conceded that there was a $65 million problem, the Premier announced at Willetton Senior High School that the Government would allocate an additional $65 million to wipe out the school maintenance backlog problem. On the one hand, the Opposition has given a commitment to spend $20 million on school maintenance issues and, on the other hand, the Government has given a commitment to spend $65 million on the problem. Mr C.J. Barnett: What have you done for the past three and a half years? Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I can understand how the Opposition could make a half-baked promise like that and get gazumped by the Government, which is working on the issue and has promised to spend more than three times the amount of money on it than the Opposition has promised. I found the response of the shadow Minister for Education and Training interesting. When he was asked about it by The West Australian newspaper, he said that the $20 million that Mr Barnett had announced just the week before had been a minimum figure, which would have been increased. That evokes the imagery of a scene from the movie Crocodile Dundee , in which some people who were attempting to mug Mick Dundee in a New York subway using a small knife were confronted by Mick Dundee who said, “You call that a knife?” before pulling out a real knife. It also demonstrates how the Opposition works now and how it worked when it was in government. The former Government had a completely useless minister, the current member for Cottesloe - he is utterly useless - who had no idea of what was going on. He made promises to spend money hither and thither without worrying whether it would affect or solve the issues. Consequently, under the guidance of the financial whiz-kid, the member for Cottesloe, the education budget alone blew out by more than $300 million. It wrecked the state budget and drove the poor old Premier to distraction. He was unable to run a surplus budget because he had a minister about whom the current head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Western Australia was so concerned that he wrote letter to the then Premier telling him of the problems that the then minister was creating. This is the choice that now confronts people in Western Australia: an alternative Government that is promising to spend $20 million extra on education for the maintenance of schools or the current Government, which has committed an additional $65 million to eliminate the problem once and for all. I think it is a pretty easy choice for them to make.
Mr A.J. CARPENTER: On 31 July the Leader of the Opposition, the former Minister for Education, announced at the Liberal Party state conference that the coalition Government would spend an additional $20 million over four years on the maintenance problem in our schools. He went on to criticise the current Government by saying that as a result of its management the maintenance backlog had more than doubled to $73 million, with only $9 million allocated this financial year for preventive work. In other words, $64 million was outstanding and the Liberal Party was prepared to put $20 million towards that. It is a $64 million problem and the Liberal Party wanted to spend $20 million on it. When we came to government, we said we would spend an additional $10 million on maintenance. However, the problem was so great that in the first three years the Government spent an additional $28 million. In that time, according to the Opposition, the maintenance backlog actually doubled, even though the Government spent more than $28 million extra. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: I call the members for Warren-Blackwood, Darling Range and Kingsley to order. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: To solve that issue the Opposition has said it will allocate $20 million over four years. Coincidentally, the Government has been working on the same problem. I admitted in Parliament that we had a $65 million problem. Just a short time later, on 8 August, having announced publicly that we needed to spend more money on school maintenance and having conceded that there was a $65 million problem, the Premier announced at Willetton Senior High School that the Government would allocate an additional $65 million to wipe out the school maintenance backlog problem. On the one hand, the Opposition has given a commitment to spend $20 million on school maintenance issues and, on the other hand, the Government has given a commitment to spend $65 million on the problem. Mr C.J. Barnett: What have you done for the past three and a half years? Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I can understand how the Opposition could make a half-baked promise like that and get gazumped by the Government, which is working on the issue and has promised to spend more than three times the amount of money on it than the Opposition has promised. I found the response of the shadow Minister for Education and Training interesting. When he was asked about it by The West Australian newspaper, he said that the $20 million that Mr Barnett had announced just the week before had been a minimum figure, which would have been increased. That evokes the imagery of a scene from the movie Crocodile Dundee , in which some people who were attempting to mug Mick Dundee in a New York subway using a small knife were confronted by Mick Dundee who said, “You call that a knife?” before pulling out a real knife. It also demonstrates how the Opposition works now and how it worked when it was in government. The former Government had a completely useless minister, the current member for Cottesloe - he is utterly useless - who had no idea of what was going on. He made promises to spend money hither and thither without worrying whether it would affect or solve the issues. Consequently, under the guidance of the financial whiz-kid, the member for Cottesloe, the education budget alone blew out by more than $300 million. It wrecked the state budget and drove the poor old Premier to distraction. He was unable to run a surplus budget because he had a minister about whom the current head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Western Australia was so concerned that he wrote letter to the then Premier telling him of the problems that the then minister was creating. This is the choice that now confronts people in Western Australia: an alternative Government that is promising to spend $20 million extra on education for the maintenance of schools or the current Government, which has committed an additional $65 million to eliminate the problem once and for all. I think it is a pretty easy choice for them to make.
Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: I call the members for Warren-Blackwood, Darling Range and Kingsley to order. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: To solve that issue the Opposition has said it will allocate $20 million over four years. Coincidentally, the Government has been working on the same problem. I admitted in Parliament that we had a $65 million problem. Just a short time later, on 8 August, having announced publicly that we needed to spend more money on school maintenance and having conceded that there was a $65 million problem, the Premier announced at Willetton Senior High School that the Government would allocate an additional $65 million to wipe out the school maintenance backlog problem. On the one hand, the Opposition has given a commitment to spend $20 million on school maintenance issues and, on the other hand, the Government has given a commitment to spend $65 million on the problem. Mr C.J. Barnett: What have you done for the past three and a half years? Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I can understand how the Opposition could make a half-baked promise like that and get gazumped by the Government, which is working on the issue and has promised to spend more than three times the amount of money on it than the Opposition has promised. I found the response of the shadow Minister for Education and Training interesting. When he was asked about it by The West Australian newspaper, he said that the $20 million that Mr Barnett had announced just the week before had been a minimum figure, which would have been increased. That evokes the imagery of a scene from the movie Crocodile Dundee , in which some people who were attempting to mug Mick Dundee in a New York subway using a small knife were confronted by Mick Dundee who said, “You call that a knife?” before pulling out a real knife. It also demonstrates how the Opposition works now and how it worked when it was in government. The former Government had a completely useless minister, the current member for Cottesloe - he is utterly useless - who had no idea of what was going on. He made promises to spend money hither and thither without worrying whether it would affect or solve the issues. Consequently, under the guidance of the financial whiz-kid, the member for Cottesloe, the education budget alone blew out by more than $300 million. It wrecked the state budget and drove the poor old Premier to distraction. He was unable to run a surplus budget because he had a minister about whom the current head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Western Australia was so concerned that he wrote letter to the then Premier telling him of the problems that the then minister was creating. This is the choice that now confronts people in Western Australia: an alternative Government that is promising to spend $20 million extra on education for the maintenance of schools or the current Government, which has committed an additional $65 million to eliminate the problem once and for all. I think it is a pretty easy choice for them to make.
The SPEAKER: I call the members for Warren-Blackwood, Darling Range and Kingsley to order. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: To solve that issue the Opposition has said it will allocate $20 million over four years. Coincidentally, the Government has been working on the same problem. I admitted in Parliament that we had a $65 million problem. Just a short time later, on 8 August, having announced publicly that we needed to spend more money on school maintenance and having conceded that there was a $65 million problem, the Premier announced at Willetton Senior High School that the Government would allocate an additional $65 million to wipe out the school maintenance backlog problem. On the one hand, the Opposition has given a commitment to spend $20 million on school maintenance issues and, on the other hand, the Government has given a commitment to spend $65 million on the problem. Mr C.J. Barnett: What have you done for the past three and a half years? Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I can understand how the Opposition could make a half-baked promise like that and get gazumped by the Government, which is working on the issue and has promised to spend more than three times the amount of money on it than the Opposition has promised. I found the response of the shadow Minister for Education and Training interesting. When he was asked about it by The West Australian newspaper, he said that the $20 million that Mr Barnett had announced just the week before had been a minimum figure, which would have been increased. That evokes the imagery of a scene from the movie Crocodile Dundee , in which some people who were attempting to mug Mick Dundee in a New York subway using a small knife were confronted by Mick Dundee who said, “You call that a knife?” before pulling out a real knife. It also demonstrates how the Opposition works now and how it worked when it was in government. The former Government had a completely useless minister, the current member for Cottesloe - he is utterly useless - who had no idea of what was going on. He made promises to spend money hither and thither without worrying whether it would affect or solve the issues. Consequently, under the guidance of the financial whiz-kid, the member for Cottesloe, the education budget alone blew out by more than $300 million. It wrecked the state budget and drove the poor old Premier to distraction. He was unable to run a surplus budget because he had a minister about whom the current head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Western Australia was so concerned that he wrote letter to the then Premier telling him of the problems that the then minister was creating. This is the choice that now confronts people in Western Australia: an alternative Government that is promising to spend $20 million extra on education for the maintenance of schools or the current Government, which has committed an additional $65 million to eliminate the problem once and for all. I think it is a pretty easy choice for them to make.
Mr A.J. CARPENTER: To solve that issue the Opposition has said it will allocate $20 million over four years. Coincidentally, the Government has been working on the same problem. I admitted in Parliament that we had a $65 million problem. Just a short time later, on 8 August, having announced publicly that we needed to spend more money on school maintenance and having conceded that there was a $65 million problem, the Premier announced at Willetton Senior High School that the Government would allocate an additional $65 million to wipe out the school maintenance backlog problem. On the one hand, the Opposition has given a commitment to spend $20 million on school maintenance issues and, on the other hand, the Government has given a commitment to spend $65 million on the problem. Mr C.J. Barnett: What have you done for the past three and a half years? Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I can understand how the Opposition could make a half-baked promise like that and get gazumped by the Government, which is working on the issue and has promised to spend more than three times the amount of money on it than the Opposition has promised. I found the response of the shadow Minister for Education and Training interesting. When he was asked about it by The West Australian newspaper, he said that the $20 million that Mr Barnett had announced just the week before had been a minimum figure, which would have been increased. That evokes the imagery of a scene from the movie Crocodile Dundee , in which some people who were attempting to mug Mick Dundee in a New York subway using a small knife were confronted by Mick Dundee who said, “You call that a knife?” before pulling out a real knife. It also demonstrates how the Opposition works now and how it worked when it was in government. The former Government had a completely useless minister, the current member for Cottesloe - he is utterly useless - who had no idea of what was going on. He made promises to spend money hither and thither without worrying whether it would affect or solve the issues. Consequently, under the guidance of the financial whiz-kid, the member for Cottesloe, the education budget alone blew out by more than $300 million. It wrecked the state budget and drove the poor old Premier to distraction. He was unable to run a surplus budget because he had a minister about whom the current head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Western Australia was so concerned that he wrote letter to the then Premier telling him of the problems that the then minister was creating. This is the choice that now confronts people in Western Australia: an alternative Government that is promising to spend $20 million extra on education for the maintenance of schools or the current Government, which has committed an additional $65 million to eliminate the problem once and for all. I think it is a pretty easy choice for them to make.
Mr C.J. Barnett: What have you done for the past three and a half years? Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I can understand how the Opposition could make a half-baked promise like that and get gazumped by the Government, which is working on the issue and has promised to spend more than three times the amount of money on it than the Opposition has promised. I found the response of the shadow Minister for Education and Training interesting. When he was asked about it by The West Australian newspaper, he said that the $20 million that Mr Barnett had announced just the week before had been a minimum figure, which would have been increased. That evokes the imagery of a scene from the movie Crocodile Dundee , in which some people who were attempting to mug Mick Dundee in a New York subway using a small knife were confronted by Mick Dundee who said, “You call that a knife?” before pulling out a real knife. It also demonstrates how the Opposition works now and how it worked when it was in government. The former Government had a completely useless minister, the current member for Cottesloe - he is utterly useless - who had no idea of what was going on. He made promises to spend money hither and thither without worrying whether it would affect or solve the issues. Consequently, under the guidance of the financial whiz-kid, the member for Cottesloe, the education budget alone blew out by more than $300 million. It wrecked the state budget and drove the poor old Premier to distraction. He was unable to run a surplus budget because he had a minister about whom the current head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Western Australia was so concerned that he wrote letter to the then Premier telling him of the problems that the then minister was creating. This is the choice that now confronts people in Western Australia: an alternative Government that is promising to spend $20 million extra on education for the maintenance of schools or the current Government, which has committed an additional $65 million to eliminate the problem once and for all. I think it is a pretty easy choice for them to make.
Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I can understand how the Opposition could make a half-baked promise like that and get gazumped by the Government, which is working on the issue and has promised to spend more than three times the amount of money on it than the Opposition has promised. I found the response of the shadow Minister for Education and Training interesting. When he was asked about it by The West Australian newspaper, he said that the $20 million that Mr Barnett had announced just the week before had been a minimum figure, which would have been increased. That evokes the imagery of a scene from the movie Crocodile Dundee , in which some people who were attempting to mug Mick Dundee in a New York subway using a small knife were confronted by Mick Dundee who said, “You call that a knife?” before pulling out a real knife. It also demonstrates how the Opposition works now and how it worked when it was in government. The former Government had a completely useless minister, the current member for Cottesloe - he is utterly useless - who had no idea of what was going on. He made promises to spend money hither and thither without worrying whether it would affect or solve the issues. Consequently, under the guidance of the financial whiz-kid, the member for Cottesloe, the education budget alone blew out by more than $300 million. It wrecked the state budget and drove the poor old Premier to distraction. He was unable to run a surplus budget because he had a minister about whom the current head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Western Australia was so concerned that he wrote letter to the then Premier telling him of the problems that the then minister was creating. This is the choice that now confronts people in Western Australia: an alternative Government that is promising to spend $20 million extra on education for the maintenance of schools or the current Government, which has committed an additional $65 million to eliminate the problem once and for all. I think it is a pretty easy choice for them to make.
Mr A.J. CARPENTER replied: I thank the member for Albany for the question and for his pursuit of educational issues in his electorate. This is a nice little issue. On Tuesday I was expecting the shadow Minister for Education and Training to ask me questions about maintenance because it is obviously an important issue. Dr G.I. Gallop: There is a small matter of a $45 million difference. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: On 31 July the Leader of the Opposition, the former Minister for Education, announced at the Liberal Party state conference that the coalition Government would spend an additional $20 million over four years on the maintenance problem in our schools. He went on to criticise the current Government by saying that as a result of its management the maintenance backlog had more than doubled to $73 million, with only $9 million allocated this financial year for preventive work. In other words, $64 million was outstanding and the Liberal Party was prepared to put $20 million towards that. It is a $64 million problem and the Liberal Party wanted to spend $20 million on it. When we came to government, we said we would spend an additional $10 million on maintenance. However, the problem was so great that in the first three years the Government spent an additional $28 million. In that time, according to the Opposition, the maintenance backlog actually doubled, even though the Government spent more than $28 million extra. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: I call the members for Warren-Blackwood, Darling Range and Kingsley to order. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: To solve that issue the Opposition has said it will allocate $20 million over four years. Coincidentally, the Government has been working on the same problem. I admitted in Parliament that we had a $65 million problem. Just a short time later, on 8 August, having announced publicly that we needed to spend more money on school maintenance and having conceded that there was a $65 million problem, the Premier announced at Willetton Senior High School that the Government would allocate an additional $65 million to wipe out the school maintenance backlog problem. On the one hand, the Opposition has given a commitment to spend $20 million on school maintenance issues and, on the other hand, the Government has given a commitment to spend $65 million on the problem. Mr C.J. Barnett: What have you done for the past three and a half years? Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I can understand how the Opposition could make a half-baked promise like that and get gazumped by the Government, which is working on the issue and has promised to spend more than three times the amount of money on it than the Opposition has promised. I found the response of the shadow Minister for Education and Training interesting. When he was asked about it by The West Australian newspaper, he said that the $20 million that Mr Barnett had announced just the week before had been a minimum figure, which would have been increased. That evokes the imagery of a scene from the movie Crocodile Dundee , in which some people who were attempting to mug Mick Dundee in a New York subway using a small knife were confronted by Mick Dundee who said, “You call that a knife?” before pulling out a real knife. It also demonstrates how the Opposition works now and how it worked when it was in government. The former Government had a completely useless minister, the current member for Cottesloe - he is utterly useless - who had no idea of what was going on. He made promises to spend money hither and thither without worrying whether it would affect or solve the issues. Consequently, under the guidance of the financial whiz-kid, the member for Cottesloe, the education budget alone blew out by more than $300 million. It wrecked the state budget and drove the poor old Premier to distraction. He was unable to run a surplus budget because he had a minister about whom the current head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Western Australia was so concerned that he wrote letter to the then Premier telling him of the problems that the then minister was creating. This is the choice that now confronts people in Western Australia: an alternative Government that is promising to spend $20 million extra on education for the maintenance of schools or the current Government, which has committed an additional $65 million to eliminate the problem once and for all. I think it is a pretty easy choice for them to make.
I thank the member for Albany for the question and for his pursuit of educational issues in his electorate. This is a nice little issue. On Tuesday I was expecting the shadow Minister for Education and Training to ask me questions about maintenance because it is obviously an important issue. Dr G.I. Gallop: There is a small matter of a $45 million difference. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: On 31 July the Leader of the Opposition, the former Minister for Education, announced at the Liberal Party state conference that the coalition Government would spend an additional $20 million over four years on the maintenance problem in our schools. He went on to criticise the current Government by saying that as a result of its management the maintenance backlog had more than doubled to $73 million, with only $9 million allocated this financial year for preventive work. In other words, $64 million was outstanding and the Liberal Party was prepared to put $20 million towards that. It is a $64 million problem and the Liberal Party wanted to spend $20 million on it. When we came to government, we said we would spend an additional $10 million on maintenance. However, the problem was so great that in the first three years the Government spent an additional $28 million. In that time, according to the Opposition, the maintenance backlog actually doubled, even though the Government spent more than $28 million extra. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: I call the members for Warren-Blackwood, Darling Range and Kingsley to order. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: To solve that issue the Opposition has said it will allocate $20 million over four years. Coincidentally, the Government has been working on the same problem. I admitted in Parliament that we had a $65 million problem. Just a short time later, on 8 August, having announced publicly that we needed to spend more money on school maintenance and having conceded that there was a $65 million problem, the Premier announced at Willetton Senior High School that the Government would allocate an additional $65 million to wipe out the school maintenance backlog problem. On the one hand, the Opposition has given a commitment to spend $20 million on school maintenance issues and, on the other hand, the Government has given a commitment to spend $65 million on the problem. Mr C.J. Barnett: What have you done for the past three and a half years? Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I can understand how the Opposition could make a half-baked promise like that and get gazumped by the Government, which is working on the issue and has promised to spend more than three times the amount of money on it than the Opposition has promised. I found the response of the shadow Minister for Education and Training interesting. When he was asked about it by The West Australian newspaper, he said that the $20 million that Mr Barnett had announced just the week before had been a minimum figure, which would have been increased. That evokes the imagery of a scene from the movie Crocodile Dundee , in which some people who were attempting to mug Mick Dundee in a New York subway using a small knife were confronted by Mick Dundee who said, “You call that a knife?” before pulling out a real knife. It also demonstrates how the Opposition works now and how it worked when it was in government. The former Government had a completely useless minister, the current member for Cottesloe - he is utterly useless - who had no idea of what was going on. He made promises to spend money hither and thither without worrying whether it would affect or solve the issues. Consequently, under the guidance of the financial whiz-kid, the member for Cottesloe, the education budget alone blew out by more than $300 million. It wrecked the state budget and drove the poor old Premier to distraction. He was unable to run a surplus budget because he had a minister about whom the current head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Western Australia was so concerned that he wrote letter to the then Premier telling him of the problems that the then minister was creating. This is the choice that now confronts people in Western Australia: an alternative Government that is promising to spend $20 million extra on education for the maintenance of schools or the current Government, which has committed an additional $65 million to eliminate the problem once and for all. I think it is a pretty easy choice for them to make.
Dr G.I. Gallop: There is a small matter of a $45 million difference. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: On 31 July the Leader of the Opposition, the former Minister for Education, announced at the Liberal Party state conference that the coalition Government would spend an additional $20 million over four years on the maintenance problem in our schools. He went on to criticise the current Government by saying that as a result of its management the maintenance backlog had more than doubled to $73 million, with only $9 million allocated this financial year for preventive work. In other words, $64 million was outstanding and the Liberal Party was prepared to put $20 million towards that. It is a $64 million problem and the Liberal Party wanted to spend $20 million on it. When we came to government, we said we would spend an additional $10 million on maintenance. However, the problem was so great that in the first three years the Government spent an additional $28 million. In that time, according to the Opposition, the maintenance backlog actually doubled, even though the Government spent more than $28 million extra. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: I call the members for Warren-Blackwood, Darling Range and Kingsley to order. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: To solve that issue the Opposition has said it will allocate $20 million over four years. Coincidentally, the Government has been working on the same problem. I admitted in Parliament that we had a $65 million problem. Just a short time later, on 8 August, having announced publicly that we needed to spend more money on school maintenance and having conceded that there was a $65 million problem, the Premier announced at Willetton Senior High School that the Government would allocate an additional $65 million to wipe out the school maintenance backlog problem. On the one hand, the Opposition has given a commitment to spend $20 million on school maintenance issues and, on the other hand, the Government has given a commitment to spend $65 million on the problem. Mr C.J. Barnett: What have you done for the past three and a half years? Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I can understand how the Opposition could make a half-baked promise like that and get gazumped by the Government, which is working on the issue and has promised to spend more than three times the amount of money on it than the Opposition has promised. I found the response of the shadow Minister for Education and Training interesting. When he was asked about it by The West Australian newspaper, he said that the $20 million that Mr Barnett had announced just the week before had been a minimum figure, which would have been increased. That evokes the imagery of a scene from the movie Crocodile Dundee , in which some people who were attempting to mug Mick Dundee in a New York subway using a small knife were confronted by Mick Dundee who said, “You call that a knife?” before pulling out a real knife. It also demonstrates how the Opposition works now and how it worked when it was in government. The former Government had a completely useless minister, the current member for Cottesloe - he is utterly useless - who had no idea of what was going on. He made promises to spend money hither and thither without worrying whether it would affect or solve the issues. Consequently, under the guidance of the financial whiz-kid, the member for Cottesloe, the education budget alone blew out by more than $300 million. It wrecked the state budget and drove the poor old Premier to distraction. He was unable to run a surplus budget because he had a minister about whom the current head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Western Australia was so concerned that he wrote letter to the then Premier telling him of the problems that the then minister was creating. This is the choice that now confronts people in Western Australia: an alternative Government that is promising to spend $20 million extra on education for the maintenance of schools or the current Government, which has committed an additional $65 million to eliminate the problem once and for all. I think it is a pretty easy choice for them to make.
Mr A.J. CARPENTER: On 31 July the Leader of the Opposition, the former Minister for Education, announced at the Liberal Party state conference that the coalition Government would spend an additional $20 million over four years on the maintenance problem in our schools. He went on to criticise the current Government by saying that as a result of its management the maintenance backlog had more than doubled to $73 million, with only $9 million allocated this financial year for preventive work. In other words, $64 million was outstanding and the Liberal Party was prepared to put $20 million towards that. It is a $64 million problem and the Liberal Party wanted to spend $20 million on it. When we came to government, we said we would spend an additional $10 million on maintenance. However, the problem was so great that in the first three years the Government spent an additional $28 million. In that time, according to the Opposition, the maintenance backlog actually doubled, even though the Government spent more than $28 million extra. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: I call the members for Warren-Blackwood, Darling Range and Kingsley to order. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: To solve that issue the Opposition has said it will allocate $20 million over four years. Coincidentally, the Government has been working on the same problem. I admitted in Parliament that we had a $65 million problem. Just a short time later, on 8 August, having announced publicly that we needed to spend more money on school maintenance and having conceded that there was a $65 million problem, the Premier announced at Willetton Senior High School that the Government would allocate an additional $65 million to wipe out the school maintenance backlog problem. On the one hand, the Opposition has given a commitment to spend $20 million on school maintenance issues and, on the other hand, the Government has given a commitment to spend $65 million on the problem. Mr C.J. Barnett: What have you done for the past three and a half years? Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I can understand how the Opposition could make a half-baked promise like that and get gazumped by the Government, which is working on the issue and has promised to spend more than three times the amount of money on it than the Opposition has promised. I found the response of the shadow Minister for Education and Training interesting. When he was asked about it by The West Australian newspaper, he said that the $20 million that Mr Barnett had announced just the week before had been a minimum figure, which would have been increased. That evokes the imagery of a scene from the movie Crocodile Dundee , in which some people who were attempting to mug Mick Dundee in a New York subway using a small knife were confronted by Mick Dundee who said, “You call that a knife?” before pulling out a real knife. It also demonstrates how the Opposition works now and how it worked when it was in government. The former Government had a completely useless minister, the current member for Cottesloe - he is utterly useless - who had no idea of what was going on. He made promises to spend money hither and thither without worrying whether it would affect or solve the issues. Consequently, under the guidance of the financial whiz-kid, the member for Cottesloe, the education budget alone blew out by more than $300 million. It wrecked the state budget and drove the poor old Premier to distraction. He was unable to run a surplus budget because he had a minister about whom the current head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Western Australia was so concerned that he wrote letter to the then Premier telling him of the problems that the then minister was creating. This is the choice that now confronts people in Western Australia: an alternative Government that is promising to spend $20 million extra on education for the maintenance of schools or the current Government, which has committed an additional $65 million to eliminate the problem once and for all. I think it is a pretty easy choice for them to make.
Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: I call the members for Warren-Blackwood, Darling Range and Kingsley to order. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: To solve that issue the Opposition has said it will allocate $20 million over four years. Coincidentally, the Government has been working on the same problem. I admitted in Parliament that we had a $65 million problem. Just a short time later, on 8 August, having announced publicly that we needed to spend more money on school maintenance and having conceded that there was a $65 million problem, the Premier announced at Willetton Senior High School that the Government would allocate an additional $65 million to wipe out the school maintenance backlog problem. On the one hand, the Opposition has given a commitment to spend $20 million on school maintenance issues and, on the other hand, the Government has given a commitment to spend $65 million on the problem. Mr C.J. Barnett: What have you done for the past three and a half years? Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I can understand how the Opposition could make a half-baked promise like that and get gazumped by the Government, which is working on the issue and has promised to spend more than three times the amount of money on it than the Opposition has promised. I found the response of the shadow Minister for Education and Training interesting. When he was asked about it by The West Australian newspaper, he said that the $20 million that Mr Barnett had announced just the week before had been a minimum figure, which would have been increased. That evokes the imagery of a scene from the movie Crocodile Dundee , in which some people who were attempting to mug Mick Dundee in a New York subway using a small knife were confronted by Mick Dundee who said, “You call that a knife?” before pulling out a real knife. It also demonstrates how the Opposition works now and how it worked when it was in government. The former Government had a completely useless minister, the current member for Cottesloe - he is utterly useless - who had no idea of what was going on. He made promises to spend money hither and thither without worrying whether it would affect or solve the issues. Consequently, under the guidance of the financial whiz-kid, the member for Cottesloe, the education budget alone blew out by more than $300 million. It wrecked the state budget and drove the poor old Premier to distraction. He was unable to run a surplus budget because he had a minister about whom the current head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Western Australia was so concerned that he wrote letter to the then Premier telling him of the problems that the then minister was creating. This is the choice that now confronts people in Western Australia: an alternative Government that is promising to spend $20 million extra on education for the maintenance of schools or the current Government, which has committed an additional $65 million to eliminate the problem once and for all. I think it is a pretty easy choice for them to make.
The SPEAKER: I call the members for Warren-Blackwood, Darling Range and Kingsley to order. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: To solve that issue the Opposition has said it will allocate $20 million over four years. Coincidentally, the Government has been working on the same problem. I admitted in Parliament that we had a $65 million problem. Just a short time later, on 8 August, having announced publicly that we needed to spend more money on school maintenance and having conceded that there was a $65 million problem, the Premier announced at Willetton Senior High School that the Government would allocate an additional $65 million to wipe out the school maintenance backlog problem. On the one hand, the Opposition has given a commitment to spend $20 million on school maintenance issues and, on the other hand, the Government has given a commitment to spend $65 million on the problem. Mr C.J. Barnett: What have you done for the past three and a half years? Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I can understand how the Opposition could make a half-baked promise like that and get gazumped by the Government, which is working on the issue and has promised to spend more than three times the amount of money on it than the Opposition has promised. I found the response of the shadow Minister for Education and Training interesting. When he was asked about it by The West Australian newspaper, he said that the $20 million that Mr Barnett had announced just the week before had been a minimum figure, which would have been increased. That evokes the imagery of a scene from the movie Crocodile Dundee , in which some people who were attempting to mug Mick Dundee in a New York subway using a small knife were confronted by Mick Dundee who said, “You call that a knife?” before pulling out a real knife. It also demonstrates how the Opposition works now and how it worked when it was in government. The former Government had a completely useless minister, the current member for Cottesloe - he is utterly useless - who had no idea of what was going on. He made promises to spend money hither and thither without worrying whether it would affect or solve the issues. Consequently, under the guidance of the financial whiz-kid, the member for Cottesloe, the education budget alone blew out by more than $300 million. It wrecked the state budget and drove the poor old Premier to distraction. He was unable to run a surplus budget because he had a minister about whom the current head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Western Australia was so concerned that he wrote letter to the then Premier telling him of the problems that the then minister was creating. This is the choice that now confronts people in Western Australia: an alternative Government that is promising to spend $20 million extra on education for the maintenance of schools or the current Government, which has committed an additional $65 million to eliminate the problem once and for all. I think it is a pretty easy choice for them to make.
Mr A.J. CARPENTER: To solve that issue the Opposition has said it will allocate $20 million over four years. Coincidentally, the Government has been working on the same problem. I admitted in Parliament that we had a $65 million problem. Just a short time later, on 8 August, having announced publicly that we needed to spend more money on school maintenance and having conceded that there was a $65 million problem, the Premier announced at Willetton Senior High School that the Government would allocate an additional $65 million to wipe out the school maintenance backlog problem. On the one hand, the Opposition has given a commitment to spend $20 million on school maintenance issues and, on the other hand, the Government has given a commitment to spend $65 million on the problem. Mr C.J. Barnett: What have you done for the past three and a half years? Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I can understand how the Opposition could make a half-baked promise like that and get gazumped by the Government, which is working on the issue and has promised to spend more than three times the amount of money on it than the Opposition has promised. I found the response of the shadow Minister for Education and Training interesting. When he was asked about it by The West Australian newspaper, he said that the $20 million that Mr Barnett had announced just the week before had been a minimum figure, which would have been increased. That evokes the imagery of a scene from the movie Crocodile Dundee , in which some people who were attempting to mug Mick Dundee in a New York subway using a small knife were confronted by Mick Dundee who said, “You call that a knife?” before pulling out a real knife. It also demonstrates how the Opposition works now and how it worked when it was in government. The former Government had a completely useless minister, the current member for Cottesloe - he is utterly useless - who had no idea of what was going on. He made promises to spend money hither and thither without worrying whether it would affect or solve the issues. Consequently, under the guidance of the financial whiz-kid, the member for Cottesloe, the education budget alone blew out by more than $300 million. It wrecked the state budget and drove the poor old Premier to distraction. He was unable to run a surplus budget because he had a minister about whom the current head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Western Australia was so concerned that he wrote letter to the then Premier telling him of the problems that the then minister was creating. This is the choice that now confronts people in Western Australia: an alternative Government that is promising to spend $20 million extra on education for the maintenance of schools or the current Government, which has committed an additional $65 million to eliminate the problem once and for all. I think it is a pretty easy choice for them to make.
Mr C.J. Barnett: What have you done for the past three and a half years? Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I can understand how the Opposition could make a half-baked promise like that and get gazumped by the Government, which is working on the issue and has promised to spend more than three times the amount of money on it than the Opposition has promised. I found the response of the shadow Minister for Education and Training interesting. When he was asked about it by The West Australian newspaper, he said that the $20 million that Mr Barnett had announced just the week before had been a minimum figure, which would have been increased. That evokes the imagery of a scene from the movie Crocodile Dundee , in which some people who were attempting to mug Mick Dundee in a New York subway using a small knife were confronted by Mick Dundee who said, “You call that a knife?” before pulling out a real knife. It also demonstrates how the Opposition works now and how it worked when it was in government. The former Government had a completely useless minister, the current member for Cottesloe - he is utterly useless - who had no idea of what was going on. He made promises to spend money hither and thither without worrying whether it would affect or solve the issues. Consequently, under the guidance of the financial whiz-kid, the member for Cottesloe, the education budget alone blew out by more than $300 million. It wrecked the state budget and drove the poor old Premier to distraction. He was unable to run a surplus budget because he had a minister about whom the current head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Western Australia was so concerned that he wrote letter to the then Premier telling him of the problems that the then minister was creating. This is the choice that now confronts people in Western Australia: an alternative Government that is promising to spend $20 million extra on education for the maintenance of schools or the current Government, which has committed an additional $65 million to eliminate the problem once and for all. I think it is a pretty easy choice for them to make.
Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I can understand how the Opposition could make a half-baked promise like that and get gazumped by the Government, which is working on the issue and has promised to spend more than three times the amount of money on it than the Opposition has promised. I found the response of the shadow Minister for Education and Training interesting. When he was asked about it by The West Australian newspaper, he said that the $20 million that Mr Barnett had announced just the week before had been a minimum figure, which would have been increased. That evokes the imagery of a scene from the movie Crocodile Dundee , in which some people who were attempting to mug Mick Dundee in a New York subway using a small knife were confronted by Mick Dundee who said, “You call that a knife?” before pulling out a real knife. It also demonstrates how the Opposition works now and how it worked when it was in government. The former Government had a completely useless minister, the current member for Cottesloe - he is utterly useless - who had no idea of what was going on. He made promises to spend money hither and thither without worrying whether it would affect or solve the issues. Consequently, under the guidance of the financial whiz-kid, the member for Cottesloe, the education budget alone blew out by more than $300 million. It wrecked the state budget and drove the poor old Premier to distraction. He was unable to run a surplus budget because he had a minister about whom the current head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Western Australia was so concerned that he wrote letter to the then Premier telling him of the problems that the then minister was creating. This is the choice that now confronts people in Western Australia: an alternative Government that is promising to spend $20 million extra on education for the maintenance of schools or the current Government, which has committed an additional $65 million to eliminate the problem once and for all. I think it is a pretty easy choice for them to make.
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