North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

you realise that these inept projects are payed with working peoples taxes?on second thoughts probably not

Kevin Kevinson wrote:our kids will be paying for glorified $ 1/2million tool sheds aka libraries at schools etc in high taxes for the rest of their lives thus limiting our future economic growth

are you kidding? wasted money on libraries? surely you must be having a lend...i cant see anything wrong with educating my kids...if you are gonna have a go at a govt for mispent funds, look for other targets than health and education. Every dollar we spend on our health and education systems is long term smart money, and thinking of our children and their children's children. Dont care which side you support.

As far as people blowing up about 'not getting to vote in the PM' well guys/gals, we live in a westminster system that votes a party in. Our whole system is voting parties at the top level, not the person. Probably goes to show just how smart Rudd was that he ran a 'presidential' campaign...remember Kevin 07? I guess like it or not, his campaign was clever enough now to think we have a right to say who is the PM...we never have had that right constitutionally.

The reality is we only ever have been able to vote for a party, and until we get rid of the Monarchy, we only ever will be able to vote for a party at the national level. The party can put forward whoever they want.

Dunno if this will make any real difference about population growth, but at least they acknowledge people weren't happy with Rudd's stance ....

http://www.news.com.au/features/federal ... 5884715195

My two bobs worth -

Its interseting that some people think that ANY money spent on schools could hardly have been wasted - consider the NTG spending tax payer funded boat ramps which you could only use on or at high tide during the springs - my goodness we would all be up in arms - but here we are saying its OK to spend money on building something for a school even though it cost way too much. Now before you jump down my throat I dont have all the facts and Im only too happy to admit that but Im concerned about stories that say that we have spent way too much money on buildings in schools that dont meet the requirements - not much chop for the schools who missed out when the well dried up either - perhaps if the moeny was better spent we could have shared the love but anyway any govt sponsored project will always be corrupt in some way shape or form.

The tax system explained in beer terms sums it all up I reckon.

Oh and my anology of a boat ramp might come back to bite us on the arse I guess......
Cheers
Shane

Exactly Shane l am not interested in getting into a political pissing contest at all but obviously people weren't interested or chose to ignore the reports from actual school principals on being forced to take these temporary structures that were totally unacceptable for there requirements and conditions these buildings were independently inspected and rated at a 5yr life span we even had school councils erecting a mock up on the lawns in front of parliament to show the public the folly of it when the money could have been spent on things the schools really needed lets hope the general public starts to take a bit of interest in the goings on in the political world for our kids sake just spending money for the sake of spending it is not going to help anyone

See this is exactly what i was talking about earlier someone halfwit hears a few principles complaining on the news and automatically assumes that the funds were wasted

Here are the facts for funding allocation.


All BER funding has now been allocated for each of three elements of the BER, which has seen:

* Under the $14.1 billion Primary Schools for the 21st Century (P21) element funding has been approved for 10 569 projects in 7960 schools including new libraries, multipurpose halls, classrooms and the refurbishment of existing facilities.
* Under the $821.8 million Science and Language Centres for 21st Secondary Schools (SLC) funding has been approved for 537 schools to refurbish or construct new science laboratories or language learning centres.
* Under the $1.28 billion National School Pride (NSP) program funding has been approved for 12 744 projects in 9495 schools, including the refurbishment of buildings and construction or upgrade of fixed shade structures, covered outdoor learning areas, sporting grounds and facilities and green upgrades.*

*Data correct as at 30 April 2010


As you can see 23,850 projects in 17,992 schools. So with such a large number of projects in so many schools it is not surprise that not everyone was happy.
So if 100 principals weren't happy this would equate to 0.55%
and even if 1000 principal weren't happy this would equate to 5.5%

Also it would be interesting to find out how many of those complaining principals were liberal supporters.

I'll relate this to your ramp analogy so you can understand lets say the NT government received 50 Million from Rudd to build 100 ramps which had to be built before the end of the year or not at all and 1 or 2 of these ramps built were deemed inadequate.

Do you think as a whole it is fair to say because 1 or 2 were shoddy that the whole project was a failure or the money was wasted. What bout the 98 ramps that were built correctly.

l am not interested in getting into a political pissing contest

So why are you commenting on a politically inspired topic??

If you are gonna lob a few hand grenades into the topic, the least you can do is own it.

That red type is a shocker, I can't read it. Must be a government job

There you go

OK - just to ensure I dont appear to be a "halfwit" I did some research so I could make an informed decision and have an opinion.

See this is exactly what i was talking about earlier someone halfwit hears a few principles complaining on the news and automatically assumes that the funds were wasted

From what I have read and now that Im interested will continue to read, as time permits, there appears to be some areas of concern with the whole system. Not the least of which is that the system of lodging complaints wasnt fully explained to schools which MAY highlight why a limited number of complaints have been made.

Regardless of what percentage of the money wasnt well spent, wastage is wastage - the Australian tax payers deserve to be assured that there money is being well spent. As a generalisation the more money spent on education could hardly have been better spent, we agree on that, but what percentage of that money has not been well spent. One of the objectives of the scheme from what I have read was to revitalise the construction industry and it appears that objective has been achieved. My concern is if some of that money has been wasted - if an independent inquiry proves that not to be the case then awesome.

Heres some links to some of the reading I have been doing to this point -

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/politic ... 5842080073

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-dept ... 5884488791

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/na ... 5885405751

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/politic ... 5885401212

http://www.ber.nsw.gov.au/

It will be interesting to see what the task force reports - I as mere "halfwit" can only surmise what that might be but as a tax payer I am concerned about where my tax dollars are spent.

Thanks for spelling it out in your throw back to my ramp analogy - "I'll relate this to your ramp analogy so you can understand" - I understand completely - not once in my post did I say that the entire project was a failure - my point was that if tax payers money has been wasted which some reports indicate it was then its worth reviewing. Im sure there are schools out there who did exceptionally well out of it and are extremely happy but it appears at this stage that not everyone is!! To answer the question would I feel that if one or two ramps were not up to speed would I consider the money wasted - YES - wastage is wastage.

Shane[/quote]