Warren Entsch (Leichhardt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister explain why none of the 106 school halls built through the so-called Building the Education Revolution school halls program over the last two years in the cyclone zone between Bundaberg and the Torres Strait and built to cyclone-proof standards cannot be used as cyclone shelters?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I can explain that. In the construction of buildings under the Building the Education Revolution, whether they be halls, whether they be classrooms, whether they be libraries or whether they be something purpose generated for that school, the construction was done to the standard under the relevant school authority’s guidelines. So, if it was in a state school, it was constructed under the state school guidelines. If it was in a Catholic school, it was constructed under the Catholic guidelines. If it was constructed in an independent school, the school itself determined what the guidelines were. If the member thinks those guidelines are inappropriate in a local school, he would need to raise that with the relevant local authorities.

What I can say to the member—which I think, given the part of the world he represents, he would be very interested in—is that, of course, as part of economic stimulus the government did build in Cairns the disaster management facility to category 5 cyclone standard. It was then used in the management of the cyclone that has just occurred. It was, in fact, where the emergency service personnel and the people who needed to coordinate in such difficult and dangerous circumstances gathered. Others went there, too, for shelter during such a ferocious cyclone. So, in terms of providing shelters that have been of use, the member would be aware of one constructed in his local community through economic stimulus—economic stimulus wholly opposed by the Leader of the Opposition.