Thursday, 10 December 2020

School building contractors

Mr HODGETT (Croydon) (14:36): My question is to the Minister for Education. The government school building authority is using the impact of COVID worksite limitations to claim that private contractors are not meeting their deadlines for works to be completed. A number of contractors have been threatened with large financial penalties by the government. Will the minister rule out penalising small- and medium-sized contractors working on government school projects whose work has been delayed due to the COVID worksite limitations that your government imposed?

Mr MERLINO (Monbulk—Minister for Education, Minister for Mental Health) (14:36): I thank the member for Croydon for his question and welcome him as the new shadow education minister. That is the fourth time I have had to do that. They roll them over every 18 months. I would say to my friend opposite that around July 2022 you will have different roles or responsibilities, and there will be a fifth shadow education minister.

Mr Walsh: And you won’t be welcoming him, will you?

Mr MERLINO: Well, it will probably be the upper house member for Eastern Metro, who wants to sack teachers and describes the public school system as broken—but, you know, that is the track record of the Liberal Party and those opposite.

But I do thank the member for Croydon for his question about contracts, the accountability of those contracts and the timeliness of those contracts. The Victorian School Building Authority (VSBA) works very, very closely with all of our contractors, all of our builders, all of our architects. We have high expectations of everyone involved in the biggest school-building program that this state has ever seen, including $3 billion in the state budget that we delivered just a couple of weeks ago. So we do acknowledge—$3 billion, $1.9 billion of new and additional projects announced since—

Mr Hodgett: On a point of order, Speaker, on relevance, the minister was asked about the COVID worksite limitations that the government imposed. Now, because of those, a number of contractors have been threatened with large financial penalties by the government. I asked the minister if he can rule out penalising those small to medium companies, and I would ask you to bring him back to answering the question.

The SPEAKER: I remind members that points of order are not an opportunity to repeat the question, but I note the minister is being relevant to the question that was asked.

Mr MERLINO: The Victorian School Building Authority has high expectations of all of our contractors. Now, across the period of the pandemic, where we had different arrangements given the restrictions and the lockdowns at the time and how that impacted on large and small projects, I am not going to rule out anything, but what I will rule in is that we will deal appropriately with every single contractor, because I have high expectations of the school building authority and the VSBA has high expectations of its contractors, and we need that because our parents expect schools to be built on time. Our students need them, our teachers need them, and we are going to deliver that—the biggest school-building program the state has ever seen. I understand this is news to those opposite because they hardly built any schools. Their record is appalling.

Mr HODGETT (Croydon) (14:39): Minister, how is it fair that small builders face financial ruin due to delays in school-building works caused by your government’s COVID second wave?

Mr MERLINO (Monbulk—Minister for Education, Minister for Mental Health) (14:40): Well, I reject the assertions in the honourable member’s question. We work very closely with all of our contractors. And I tell you what, in the biggest school-building program the state has ever seen, every builder that I speak to, every architect, every project manager—they are delighted.

A member: Subbies?

Mr MERLINO: Every subbie. We have got 300 local contractors in Shepparton working on the Greater Shepparton Secondary College—300 local builders. We are delivering jobs right across the state. We have high expectations. We will deal with each and every contractor fairly. I mean, what a ridiculous question, the last question of the parliamentary year—not a wrap-up by the Leader of the Opposition, no questions from the member for Bulleen this week. Where has he been? Where has the member for Bulleen been all week?

Mr Walsh: On a point of order, Speaker, I am having trouble hearing you because the minister is so loud, actually, but I would ask you: in the few seconds remaining could he please give an assurance to those small contractors that they will not face financial penalties? He has not done that either to the substantive or to the supplementary question, and they want the answer.

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! I do not uphold the point of order, but I do ask the Deputy Premier to come back to answering the question.

Mr MERLINO: What I will say to the member for Croydon and every member is: we will treat every single contractor fairly. What a limp way for the opposition to finish the year.