I personally can't believe the people who fell hook, line and sinker for the old conservative mantra as repeated ad nauseum by Christopher Pyne that any money spent on education is a waste.
BER was really pretty successful. Pyne criticized the program for in one case building toilet cubicles twice the normal size. In that case, it was a disabled toilet so that for the first time the school could accept disabled students.
Such was the level of Pyne and the conservatives attack. Really pathetic, but many people were hoodwinked by mantras that were little more than gibberish, i'm sorry to say Boatboy.
I know of one case where the BER grant was the lynch pin in a school being able to permanently establish itself on its own grounds.
BER was the most substantial spending on education infrastructure for 100 years and was definitely worth it. Imagine, a govt spending money on education. Wretched commies.
Did the usual rorts appear? Yes. Once again state govts got their snouts in the trough. Did BER provide a slower acting fiscal stimulus to the economy than pink batts? Yes. Did this help keep australia out of recession? Yes. Were exports to China still one of the mainstays of the economy? Of course.
Oh boatboy, sorry to have to raise this again, but an economy is either in a recession or its not. Can't be both.
