Robert Oakeshott (Lyne, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I am happy to lead for the opposition—no, I am only kidding! Computers in schools are an important issue on the mid-North Coast of New South Wales and, while I recognise the flowery wording in congratulating the Rudd government, I reserve my judgment—but, hopefully, will congratulate the Rudd government—because many aspects of the rollout on the mid-North Coast are still to take place.

In my first speech to the parliament I mentioned computers as the most critical divide between rural and metropolitan areas of Australia. The access to the information highway for students is absolutely critical, so the principles behind this rollout are sound and certainly supported. It is a case of waiting particularly for the state public education sector to start their rollout in New South Wales—which, I have got to say, has been a frustrating delay, one that hopefully gets addressed quickly so that there is no further divide between government and non-government schools.

The rollout in the non-government sector, though, has been fantastic. The electorate of Lyne was successful in round 1 prior to Christmas and, having inspected some of the schools, such as St Columba, where I think 60 new computers were put in prior to Christmas, I can say there certainly is happiness throughout the school community, both at a student and teacher level, in regard to the new equipment and the opportunities it now provides.

I will mention the states again, though, because not only with this rollout but also with many of the other aspects of the education revolution and aspects of the fiscal stimulus relevant to education generally there is the rider of the role of the states, which in many ways is going to be the maker or breaker for all of us. I would hope that all the good work and all the good intentions in formulating these policies, winning arguments in budget subcommittees and then turning them into actual policy packages are not undone at a delivery level through the various state arms.

So I would ask that the Commonwealth not think its job done and not congratulate itself yet but actually stay vigilant, crack the whip if necessary and get through the states’ hoops—whatever those hoops may be, as crazy as they may be at times—to deliver good, on-the-ground results for students and schools throughout Australia.

The other point I would like to raise is that this is not only about computer hardware and software but about broadband connections. It would be remiss of me not to mention that issue because a computer is only as good as its ability to access the global information highway. We are sweating on the national broadband rollout decisions and certainly hoping for good news on that front. We are certainly hoping that the government not only sticks to its commitments but recognises that, hand in glove with policies such as computer rollouts, we need to significantly improve internet speeds and deal with issues such as dropouts. It is embarrassing that people living five minutes from the centre of significantly urbanised areas of regional Australia are still experiencing slow speeds and high dropouts in 2009. When we think about education for students we have to think about not only the school site but the home environment as well. I think of a girl I visited during the election campaign and mentioned during my first speech who is a year 9 student at Camden Haven High School and who is on dial-up at her home. How does she compete with someone living in this town for speed of connection and access to education? It is a two-tiered system of education delivery that we have got to address, and that is why the principles behind this are sound. But I think we are all sweating on the actual delivery so that we can put the ‘for sale’ sign up and we can congratulate each other on a job well done.

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