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

Can I assure the House that we will continue to deliver the Building the Education Revolution program. Parents and teachers want better facilities in Australian schools. The Australian community supports that. The Liberal Party obviously is a party that cares so little about education and supporting Australian jobs it could not see its way to supporting it.

In respect of the last question asked of me by the shadow minister for education, I have now been advised that the school that he raises is on French Island in the electorate of Flinders. It is a small island with a limited number of people. For some reason it has always been hated by the Liberal Party. It is where Gorton and Bolte wanted to put a nuclear power station in an earlier iteration of Australian politics. The Liberal Party might not think the people of French Island deserve things, but we do. I would also ask the House to note that the Building the Education Revolution program comes with a community-use obligation—that is, facilities built under that program are used by community members. I do not know why the member for Flinders would not want a new facility for community members in his electorate. Presumably, he is continuing the historic antipathy towards French Island from the Liberal Party.

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