Maybe there are legitimate reasons for this but I don’t know what they are. The Building the Education Revolution scheme splashed out $832,000 on a spartan looking school dunny in the drought-declared Bega Valley on NSW’s south coast – comparable blocks were built in Queensland for $25,000. The package included a small shed and a short (again spartan) covered walkway – my guess about $30,000 maximum in total additional cost. Even the contractor taking the money describes the deal as “lunacy”. It is. It seems the huge cost derives from the Government’s imperative to do it overnight and this drives up costs enormously. The building sector is close to being fully employed so that surging demand just drives up prices without creating an effective increase in supply.
The cost to the taxpayer is obvious and obscene. The opportunity cost to our education system is even more obscene. I guess the benefit is the expensive information this dunny project provides about the incapacity of Government to wisely spend wealth that is ours and its incapacity to deliver output.
Give me a break Harry. I know Kevin is your bete noir but this post is not one of your best, is it? You sound like one of those shrill, moronic shock jocks we have in Sydney. It’s a mystery why the ALP makes you take a leave of your senses when i know you are normally rational and intelligent. You even misquote your source in your tumescent rush to judgment: “Even the contractor taking the money describes the deal as lunacy” whereas he is quoted as saying it was “a bloody joke”. This obviously begs the question why he quoted such an amount? Was he being dishonest? You also obtusely misrepresent the situation – this is not a comparable block – the works included the toilet block, drinking fountains, a storage block with a 10,000-litre water tank, a 20m walkway and paths, as well as solar cells on the administration block. Plus 30 lights.
There is a valid point to be made about the fed government spendathon but you ain’t making it and have thus wasted an opportunity to discuss this matter cogently.
Sir Henry, Quote the article. The contractor says, “It’s just lunacy”. That’s what I said he said too. Mr Barraclough would be astonished at your poor English comprehension skills and would probably demote you to Miss Cook’s class.
Toilet block $25,000; drinking fountains $3-4,000; 10,000 metre tank $1000; 20 litre walkway and paths $10,000; solar cells $10,000 (absolute max), lights $7,500max. That comes to $57,500 max.
The Australian provides a picture of the facility unfortunately not available online. The cost is absurd for a facility of this scope. The contractor ridiculed the “speed” requirement and the requirement for 30 lights when only 2 would do.
I dispute that I didn’t discuss the matter cogently. The contractor quoted a lot because he was asked to do it on an extremely rapid time horizon – I mentioned this. I also mentioned that spending a lot in an industry that is close to capacity will drive up prices not increase supply. This is cogent, well-informed and a supremely intelligent application of the perceptive art of reading a newspaper article with care.
These are L-Platers in Canberra at present Sir Henry, or they’d know damn well you don’t fire up a very specialised field of the construction industry with that sort of largesse and time frames. You wouldn’t believe the regulatory hoops, standards and safety requirements you have to jump through building for kiddies nowadays with their long tailed legal liability. All unionised with commercial awards, crib huts, temporary fencing, 2 metre limits for standing on untethered or unscaffolded, 20kg lifting limits, etc, etc. The architectural drawings and specs alone would frighten the life out of the average spec home builder and all of a sudden the very specialised architects are run off their feet trying to meet the frantic deadlines everywhere. At the missus school they had greenhorn architects asking JPS and PS teachers what height sinks, toilets, cupboards, etc they wanted when the pros have it all down pat in their Autocad packages at the click of a mouse. Whaddya reckon?
Basically these drongos wanted buildings with Minister’s(Julia in the missus’ school hall case in the most marginal seat of Kingston) and local backbenchers names on fancy plaques for official openings, when they should have been tossing any stimulus money at local Principals to consult with staff and decide what their specific schools really needed and how best to get the most bang for their bucks. And these are the same L-Platers who are going to do exactly the same with our hospitals from desks in Canberra. Not hard to see how ‘we’ went from a globally envious $20bill surplus to a $57bill deficit and counting.
Yes, yes, and the builder also says he made nothing out of it. Amazing. Someone is lying through their teeth.
Sir Henry, Sorry I meant, Miss McDonald’s class.
“Yes, yes, and the builder also says he made nothing out of it. Amazing. Someone is lying through their teeth.”
No, what the builder may be saying in all honesty is he didn’t make any ‘super-normal’ profit out of his particular project and yet the project cost well above the normal commercial figure for such a job, albeit that figure is much higher than cottage home-building for the reasons outlined. Why is it so?
To understand that you need to understand that buiding and construction is very specialised nowadays, with specific firms and their tradeys and subbies ticking along in their particular sector. You’d laugh at me if I said universities are all the same and any university or faculty can handle any urgent research I suddenly throw their way. That’s essentially what the Canberra L-Platers did, by assuming buildings are buildings and we want lots of them to open quick smart. Suddenly the kiddy ed sector is facing a mountain of work with time deadlines and heavy penalties for non-performance. The Big Boys and regulars in the field are quickly signed up fully committed but there are lots of schools still frantically searching for builders to avail themselves of a once off opportunity(freebie) that if missed, won’t come their way again for ages. So when they draw a blank with the usual or recommended firms, they desperately approach anyone to get their freebie up.
So the local builder in the country or regional town, who builds a few homes and some odd renos a year gets approached. Now he knows the State Ed Dept/ Public Buildings Dept in the capital city wants full architecturals and specs, project timelines, fully tasked, OHS specs, penalties for slippage, unionised site, LSL levies, yada, yada, yada. He knows intuitively it’s way out of his comfort zone yet the local Concillor, Principal, etc, is putting the hard word on him and the locals are looking to him expectantly. He knows he’s got locals Pete the plumber, Spud the sparky, etc, but they’re in the same boat knowing this is enormous head***k time and how the hell do they quote this job and some of the gear and specs seem quite foreign and will need a lot of legwork to chase down. All reluctant as hell, the prospect of having to bring in extra outsiders, accommodation, etc and on their hammer is- ‘Just give us a quote, anything, the community wants it up fellers’. So they quote telephone numbers and whether they make super profits or just normal profits remains to be seen as they grope about in the administrative dark, wearing costs they’ve only guessed at. we all step outside our field comfort zone like this from time to time, but you only do it when the lolly is good to pay you for the hassles and learn curve. That’s what the Canberra L-Platers threw your taxes at. I guess you could say they were paying for a hell of a lot of fast-track education and one-off upskilling in the building game.
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