Today's ICAC findings highlight the leadership failures in School Infrastructure NSW under the former Liberal National Government, which had real consequences for NSW parents and students who were denied the schools their communities desperately needed.
Families in NSW's rapidly growing suburbs were ignored, while school planning was mismanaged, and data was ignored or misrepresented, leaving families without public schools in their communities.
In evidence heard before ICAC, a Department of Education senior demographer advised CEO Anthony Manning "that his actions and his request to focus on blanket numbers for the state would have the effect of diverting funds from North West and South West Sydney".
Today's findings vindicate the thousands of families in Western Sydney who told the former Liberal National Government that schools were needed. Instead of being listened to, they were gaslit.
It is clear the former Liberal National Government's mismanagement let families across NSW down. Since being elected, the Minns Labor Government has worked to strengthen and improve schools planning, oversight, and accountability, to support every child's right to education.
The Minns Labor Government has worked hard to reform School Infrastructure, ensuring schools are now being built where they are needed, including in the fast-growing suburbs of North West and South West Sydney.
We are getting on with job of building schools for families in the areas that the Liberals wilfully ignored, including in Box Hill, Marsden Park, Tallawong, Schofields, Huntlee, Austral, Leppington, Calderwood, Medowie, Gledswood Hills and Gregory Hills.
