WA school defects: Taxpayers slugged with ‘inordinate’ cost of school maintenance reports

Taxpayers are forking out millions of dollars a year for school maintenance issues to be recorded by government bureaucracy — before repair work even starts. Answers to questions in Parliament have revealed the Education Department is charged $60 every time a school principal reports a problem to a central maintenance service centre run by the Department of Housing and Works. In 2024, the total cost swallowed up for reporting defects such as broken taps or leaky pipes was a staggering $8.5 million. “That seems an inordinate amount of money to spend to report a problem, without even taking any action to fix it,” WA Secondary School Executives Association president Melissa Gillett said. “Surely that money would be better spent on actually rectifying maintenance issues in schools.” Ms Gillett said $8m divided among 830 schools was more than $9000 each. “It means there’s 133,000 maintenance issues that have been reported in schools in a year — or around 160 for every school,” she said. “That’s what happens when we have around 400 schools that are more than 40 or 50 years old that haven’t had money spent on them.” Shadow Education Minister Liam Staltari said it was “bizarre and unacceptable” that the Cook Government was spending millions each year just to log defects, when schools across the State were constantly grappling with old and neglected infrastructure. “Not to fix them, just to log them,” he said. “That’s $8m spent without a single smashed window, busted pipe or electrical fault actually being fixed.” Mr Staltari said he had asked the question twice in Parliament because he couldn’t believe the figure. “We need every possible dollar in our classrooms, not being swallowed up by backroom bureaucracy,” he said. “I think teachers and taxpayers will feel the same way.” A Department of Housing and Works spokesperson said ensuring schools remained operational and safe was a priority for the State Government. Fees covered the cost of running a Statewide 24/7 faults service, including procurement and contract management, dispatching contractors, managing accounts and maintaining various ICT systems. “More than 830 public schools, from Derby to Dalwallinu, can call the Maintenance Service Centre any time of the day or week to register a maintenance fault,” they said. “It is important to note the $60 fee is not charged to schools; it is charged to the Department of Education. DHW provides this service on a cost-recovery basis.” The spokesperson said the service centre received requests for a range of urgent repairs, from broken taps and leaking pipes to common faults such as lights not working. “If the faults reported are for the same trade category, multiple jobs can be grouped, and a single fee is applied,” they said.