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

I have been asked about programs and compliance with Australian Electoral Commission guidelines. Obviously, precedence and what has happened in the past are relevant to this. My attention has been, and I think the House’s attention probably should be, drawn to the fact that under the old Investing in Our Schools Program guidelines if you ended up with a school grant and, say, bought 5,000 books for your library every one of them had to have a sticker included in it. Every piece of material bought with the Investing in Our Schools Program money—10,000 books or 5,000 books—needed to have a sticker in it. Having had my attention drawn to this sticker here—it is very small print, so it may be challenging for some of us—I actually do not see an authorisation. I do not see an authorisation that would satisfy the Australian Electoral Commission on it.

Whilst we are on the question of school signs and other things, my attention has also been drawn to signage under the Investing in Our Schools Program. Here is one example, at the Wantirna Primary School, that actually told you who opened the project. It helpfully tells you that it was Chris Pearce, the member for Aston. It tells you that he opened the project, obviously, at a school. Once again, it is not authorised in terms of Australian Electoral Commission style authorisation. Whilst I may be straying onto—

See this speech in context