Ward Rejects Park's Porky Pies

Parliamentary Secretary for Education Gareth Ward MP has today condemned the Member for Keira Ryan Park for deliberately misleading the community on education funding.

“Whilst Mr Park talks about “Hospitals and Schools before stadiums, Labor’s largest Illawarra election commitment remains the upgrade of a stadium – the Wollongong Entertainment Centre! But not a single word about Illawarra hospitals or schools,” Mr Ward said.

“They haven’t matched our commitment to purchase Shoalhaven Anglican College to expand public education places in the southern Shoalhaven, nor have they outlined any plans for new schools.

“Whilst Labor talked about upgrades to Bulli Hospital and Shellharbour Hospital, they are yet to match our commitments with work underway on both projects. The Shadow Treasurer can’t even match our hospital upgrade work in his own electorate!

“The NSW Government will ensure that for the first time in our State’s history, the school maintenance backlog wiped to zero ensuring students including those in the Member for Keira’s electorate enjoy the best possible learning environments.

“I encourage the Member for Keira to go back to school – in fact, any school in his electorate. When he’s there, he can see how we’ve slashed school maintenance backlogs at:

“We inherited a $1 billion school maintenance backlog from the former Labor government and will now be reducing that number to zero,” he said.

“It is only because of the strong economic management of the NSW Government that we are in a position to keep our schools in their best possible condition, and fix the problems created by Labor.

“When Labor was last in Government, they closed 93 schools, sacked teachers and racked up a huge maintenance liability as our schools fell into disrepair.

“We have worked hard to reduce the maintenance backlog and I am delighted that the NSW Government will now clear it completely.

“The NSW Government will invest a further $449 million to clear the backlog by July 2020, bringing the total investment to nearly $1.3 billion.

“This funding will allow schools to accelerate important work such as carpeting, roof maintenance and painting.

“We will ensure that each school provides the world-class facilities that our students and teachers deserve,” Mr Ward said.