Media Releases

Bronwyn Pike, the Brumby Government’s Education Minister, needs to leave her gilded office in Spring St and visit some of the schools in the Swan Hill electorate hardest hit by the Building the Education Revolution (BER) debacle according to Member for Swan Hill, Peter Walsh.
“I have been contacted by many School Councils with complaints about the supposed building program that is being inflicted on their schools,” Mr Walsh said.
“What started out as an exciting time of development and expansion for these school communities has now become filled with frustration, anger and disappointment.
“By refusing to allow School Councils input into the developments that were planned for these schools and denigrating their Principals by saying they were incapable of managing these projects, the Minister has demonstrated the contempt and arrogance of the Brumby government for Victorian school communities,” he said.
“Because of this arrogance we now have schools receiving buildings they don’t really want, projects that are way behind their completion timeline, very questionable costings for the projects being undertaken and many projects so far behind they haven’t even begun the construction stage.
“This is a disgrace and I invite the Minister to come with me and visit some of these schools in Woorinen, Koondrook, Donald and Swan Hill, to name a few, to see the results of her government’s mishandling of the whole BER program,” Mr Walsh said.
“It is simply not good enough for her to sit in her office and tell these school communities how well off they are when we all know that is not the case.
“Unless Minister Pike makes the effort to visit some of these schools so badly affected by her mishandling of the BER program then we won’t see any improvement to the current situation and school communities will continue to suffer as a result,” Mr Walsh said.