Andrew Broad (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

That is right; it is actually an increase. Every one of those 119 schools will be better off. Those schools' principals have been coming to me as early as yesterday, saying, 'We support this legislation,' because this is, in reality, more money for those schools. Every student is better off. An additional $5.7 million across the electorate of Mallee will go into education.

Can I just draw back for a sec here and say that money alone does not deliver results. There are, in fact, three things that are important for education. There is, of course, the culture of the school and the teachers. When I go around and visit the schools, one of the things I do as a federal member is give away Australian flags. When I give away an Australian flag I make sure I visit the school. One of the things that is important is the culture of the teachers. When I give away these flags it gives me a chance to walk in, talk and have a look at these kids and see whether they are engaged. I have to say that the teachers I have in the Wimmera and Mallee—my patch; a third of the state of Victoria—are very engaged teachers. They actually care about their job, they care about their students and they work very hard.

The second thing that is important is the facilities. The facilities, I have to say, have largely been mismanaged by the state Labor government. Some of the facilities I have in my state schools in Victoria frankly need a fairly good upgrade but are neglected by the Andrews government. If we look over the last 15 years, it has largely been Labor governments that have run the state schools in Victoria, and it has been very poor. Within these facilities I always come across the product of the Gillard government's Building the Education Revolution program. What a great name! That is a great name: a revolution. Building the Education Revolution. Every single time, without fail, the schools say to me, 'If only we could have administered that funding better.' In contrast, the Catholic schools were given autonomy to manage their money, whereas in Victoria it was administered in such a way that they had to use a very set precinct about the way it was delivered. The delivery of that has been appalling.

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