Thu, 3rd July 2008

D-Day for Kevin's computer con

The Hon Tony Smith MP
Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training

Today’s COAG meeting in Sydney will decide whether it is state governments, schools and parents who are left with the bill for Labor’s costly election promise to put a computer on the desk of every upper secondary school student.

The Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training, Tony Smith, said unless the Rudd Government decided to fully fund its ‘digital revolution’ it would be schools and state governments left to pay for the on-costs such as electricity, software and installation.

Mr Smith said the NSW Government had already threatened to pull out of the deal unless it was given an extra $245 million to pay for the additional costs to make the computers work.

“Meanwhile the WA Premier, Alan Carpenter, has said for every $1 the Federal Government spends, an extra $3 will be required to run the computers,” Mr Smith said

“Today’s meeting will tell us whether its schools and parents who end up funding Kevin Rudd’s costly election promise.

“If the Rudd Government doesn’t step up to the plate today it will be state governments and schools left with the tab for the enormous additional costs of the ‘digital revolution’.

“The implementation of the digital revolution has been marked by chaos, confusion and incompetence from day one.”

Mr Smith said that with every state being asked to provide the Federal Government with an estimate of how much the on-costs of running the computers would be, Kevin Rudd had no excuse but to fund these.

“Today is the day Kevin Rudd must explain how much the additional costs of actually making the computers work will be and who will be paying for them,” Mr Smith said.

“Seven months after the election and two COAG meetings later, it is inconceivable that the Rudd Government is still trying to work out who is paying for what.

“So much for federal-state cooperation - the first computers will start arriving soon and yet the only arrangements made so far have been through dodgy side deals.”

Mr Smith said the ‘digital education revolution’ was nothing more than an election campaign slogan designed to win votes, not improve education in the future.