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

I will give him points for loyalty to his leader, because his leader is on the record describing expenditure on schools generally as ‘low-grade expenditure’. Clearly, there is a view throughout the opposition that, if you spend a dollar on schools, it is a dollar ill spent. Heaven knows, that was their track record in government. That is why as a government we have come in and almost doubled the amount of expenditure on Australia’s schools. We have done that because we think they are a great place to put new resources. We think they are a great place to put new facilities. We think they are a great place to encourage better teaching, literacy and numeracy. We think it is a good thing to give more money to disadvantaged schools.

We know those beliefs are not shared by those opposite, but can I say to the member for Cowper that I hope he has the guts and the honesty to go to the P&C at that school and say, ‘I didn’t support a dollar being spent on this school.’ I hope he has the guts to go to the workers who work on that construction site and look them in the eye and say, ‘I didn’t support you having a job during the global recession.’ I hope he has the guts to go and say to any apprentices employed on that site, ‘I didn’t support you having a job and getting training during the global recession.’ That is the position of his political party.

Let us remember that, despite the mealy-mouthed assurances of the shadow minister for education, which are contradicted every day by his leader, the shadow Treasurer and the shadow finance minister, each and every one of those opposite is on the record in this place, on Hansard, name by name, seat by seat, as having voted against this expenditure on schools, and every member of their electorate is going to know it by polling day.

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