Regional Schools

Tuesday February 20, 2024

Mr BELL (Mount Gambier) (15:29): Earlier today, I gave notice of a motion asking the government to recognise that our regional schools are being disadvantaged by the government's current Across Government Facilities Management Arrangements, which require government-approved contractors to carry out maintenance at our regional schools.

Whilst this system may be effective in Adelaide, with multiple contractors competing for jobs, it presents challenges for regional schools. In many cases, regional schools have limited options, often needing to hire from another town or the metro area, as there are no approved local contractors available. This results in additional project costs, as schools are required to cover exorbitant fees, including travel and accommodation for contractors. This one-size-fits-all approach puts our regional schools at a massive disadvantage and highlights the need for a more tailored and nuanced solution to address this unique challenge faced by our areas.

I have been absolutely gobsmacked by principals talking to me regarding the cost for what I would say would be minor works in our primary and secondary schools. A factor that has to be put into this is the stress and distress that this puts on principals when they cannot deliver for their community due to exorbitant price increases—and I will give some examples in a minute. What this is leading to is principals walking away from the job. Principals in some of our smaller schools are greatly needed, and to lose them because of bureaucratic hindrance is really disappointing.

I recently spoke with the principal at a local school who had a new young student start. This very young student had a tendency to climb fences and this school is on the main through road, so it was decided that the 1200mm fence needed to be raised to prevent this young student from climbing it and going out onto the road. There are no local contractors available through the government system, so a quote was provided by a company in Adelaide. The quote was $65,000 for a fence to be raised. A local contractor gave a quote of $1,000, but they were unable to do the job because they are not approved under the government scheme.

Another example I was provided with was a primary school whose toilet facilities had fallen into such a state of disrepair that the roof had fallen in and students were wetting themselves rather than using the facility. Again, the school has to use contractors coming from Adelaide, leading to an exorbitant price for the repairs that the school simply cannot afford. On top of that, the estimated wait time is over eight months to have this work completed.

Additionally, smaller maintenance tasks also present challenges. A small rural school received an invoice close to $2,000 to have their split system air-conditioner filters cleaned. It was estimated by the principal that the contractor is there for no more than three hours every time they do it. I also know of other examples of a high school where we sought funding for a gymnasium. It started out at $3 million. As soon as the school was able to raise that $3 million, it then went to $3.6 million. It now sits at $4.2 million.

I am asking that we have a commonsense approach to this, where regional schools have the power to manage routine maintenance, the ability to obtain value for money for our students, as well as support local tradespeople in our area. A successful business would not accept one inflated quote incorporating travel and accommodation costs when quality local options are available.

A solution that I am proposing is that we allow schools to have discretionary spend up to $100,000 where they can use and manage projects. Three quotes would be required and the governing council would need to sign off. Let's empower our regional schools to provide the best value and service available to our students, parents and the Australian taxpayer.

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