Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Justice and Public Security) Share this | Hansard source

I get an interjection. The former Prime Minister, John Howard, actually made a further commitment to that program. I strongly encourage the Labor members opposite to realise that, whether it be a Liberal Party policy, a National Party policy, a Greens policy or a Labor policy, if it is a good idea it is a good idea. When I was at the Upwey South Primary School the other day, they had just opened their learning centre, and they gave strong praise to the previous government and some praise to me, which I thought was rather flattering. It cost $150,000 for their learning centre, including a chook shed to get the little guys to understand about looking after animals and cooking food and to get involved in making sure they become healthy adults in the future. Those involved in the fundraising at the Upwey South Primary School raised $50,000 of their own money. I say again how disappointed all the schools throughout my entire electorate are that they are not receiving the Investing in Our Schools Program funding.

We also talk about how we are having a revolution with the rollout of computers. I think that in my electorate there are two schools that have received computers. One school in my electorate is Emerald Secondary College. Sadly, under the previous Investing in Our Schools Program funding, Emerald had purchased some computers, so they are basically stuck between a rock and a hard place because they did not actually receive any. The schools which did were St Joseph’s College—I congratulate the government; they got a fair number—and Belgrave Heights Christian School, which I believe only got five. Every other school in my electorate missed out on these computers. So, if we are going to have an education revolution with rolling out computers, let us actually do it and not just talk about it.

Finally, I would like to talk about the Healthy Active Australia program. I know two of my schools applied for it: Kallista Primary School and Ferny Creek Primary School. Again, both missed out, and that was absolutely devastating. What was more devastating is that under the new government they could not get answers; they could not find out whether their application had been accepted or rejected. I find it outrageous when schools have to spend their time finding out what is actually going on. It is one of those things with education.

As I said earlier, I went to a pretty tough school in Ferntree Gully tech, and a lot of my friends, sadly, ended up going to jail or dropping out of the education system. In my maiden speech I spoke about the need to prevent people falling through the gaps of the education system. That is something which to this day I firmly believe in. I know how Belgrave Heights Christian School and its principal, Andy Callow, look after children with special needs—in particular, I believe, those with Asperger’s. The school really take more than their share of the weight when looking after special needs children. One of the problems they have, especially as a private school, is that when the funding transfers from a state school to a private school the funding does not actually go with the child. It stays at the state school. So the private schools such as Belgrave Heights Christian School are really suffering under this, and that is something which I strongly urge the government to change.

Finally, I again congratulate all the hardworking teachers in the electorate of La Trobe. Whether state or private, they do an amazing job. They are the guardians of the future in our younger generation and they have this huge burden and responsibility. I look forward to the education revolution coming. Sadly, in my electorate, it involves two schools with computers. No school actually has any funding for the healthy eating and active learning program. I strongly encourage the government to look at the Investing in Our Schools Program. The Labor members should really hang their heads in shame, especially the backbenchers who allowed their new government to get away with this. It was a first-class program and one which should never have been scrapped.

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