NSW Labor gravy train rolls on

An army of costly consultants is investigating BER waste.

IT would not come as any surprise to the long-suffering citizens of NSW that the $16.2 billion Building the Education Revolution program ran into more bureaucratic-driven waste and more problems in their state than in any other.

Spin rather than services and value for money has been the hallmark of the NSW government under four Labor premiers. While the BER was federally funded, state education departments are responsible for delivering it in state schools. And so acute is NSW mismanagement that Canberra is already withholding $75m in payments to the state.

To add insult to injury, it has emerged that one of Bob Carr's leading spinmeisters, Michael Salmon, is one of the beneficiaries of the process of cleaning up the mess. NSW Labor's gravy train, it seems, has rolled all the way from Sydney to Canberra and back again. Coincidentally, the NSW Labor connection to the BER program also involves another former state government spinner. Amanda Lampe, who was Mr Carr's chief press secretary, is Julia Gillard's chief of staff.

As The Australian reported on Wednesday, the taskforce investigating waste under the program, led by businessman Brad Orgill, has spent more than $1.1 million on consultants' fees in three months. Of that, $80,000 was paid to Mr Salmon, a public relations consultant, for eight weeks of media management. Not surprisingly, Education Minister Simon Crean was eager to avoid discussing that connection yesterday on Sydney radio, preferring to focus on the forthcoming release of the taskforce report before the election and how he wants to resolve problems with the BER.

Fair enough, but Mr Orgill's $14 million inquiry has had its own problems, declining to take details of 100-plus complaints about construction work, on the grounds it cannot guarantee the anonymity of school principals, who fear retribution from Education Department officials.

This newspaper supported the government's stimulus to stave off the global financial crisis and awarded Kevin Rudd the Australian of the Year award for last year for that achievement. But when it became apparent last September that Australia had dodged recession, the hastily designed BER should have been recalibrated to offer better value and do more to improve education. It remains to be seen if the clean-up investigation delivers good value.