Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Here we have Pat—good to see you, mate!—who says in his local communication:

I am working hard to ensure that more gets done for our community. Record levels of Australian Government funding are now going to our local schools, the literacy standards of our children have increased, as have the number of apprenticeships and there is significant Australian Government investment in our local hospitals,…

One thing about our colleagues opposite is that they are always on song! The member for Macarthur is reflecting the fact that all honourable members opposite—and also the members of the government—want to see this program being implemented on the ground. That is why, from the very beginning, the government issued these Building the Education Revolution guidelines. We have said from the beginning, when these guidelines were issued in February, that we would have proposals out there for projects under rounds 1 and 2 of the National School Pride and rounds 1 and 2 of the Primary Schools for the 21st Century to provide to the Commonwealth and to the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations to assess the eligibility of each proposal against the guidelines. Furthermore, the approval process is that the Commonwealth assesses projects against the guidelines and then recommends funding, which should enable each project to commence. It then goes on to say the guidelines are clear about what projects are not to be funded. The guidelines include new iconic facilities, such as libraries, multipurpose halls, classrooms, upgrading facilities in primary schools, science laboratories and language learning centres. The ever-interjecting member for Sturt seems to welcome funding for his schools on the one hand yet on the other hand stands at the dispatch box and attacks that funding—not that there is any opportunism in that, but I will just leave his constituents to make that judgment.

We also say—and this is in the guidelines:

If a school considers that a proposed allocation of funding under the BER program is not in accordance with the BER guidelines, the school may put its concerns in writing to the National BER Co-ordinator who may, where appropriate, after considering the objectives of the BER program and the BER guidelines, discuss the school’s concerns with the relevant State/Territory or BGA for the purposes of ensuring that funding is allocated in accordance with the BER guidelines.

The bottom line is this: when you are rolling out constructions at 7½ thousand schools across the country, there are always going to be disagreements on the ground about what should occur. That is natural; that is normal. As I said way back then, there are always going to be bumps in the road. But here we have got a clear statement in the guidelines that, if there are problems experienced by individual P&Cs and P&Fs, there is an appropriate point at which to lodge a concern and to have that concern heard.

The Leader of the Opposition seems to have disappeared since he asked the question. Where is he?

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