Jackie Kelly (Lindsay, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Since my election to this place in 1996, school students in Western Sydney have sweltered in temperatures of up to 41.9 degrees in their classrooms. It is 38 degrees quite regularly. This has been a source of angst for parents. They constantly approach me about the heat in their childrens’ classrooms. In some of the demountables and temporary classrooms the situation is grossly inadequate. For four years I have made representations to the Carr and now Iemma Labor governments about the condition of our schools. I was thrilled to see that my suggestion to the federal Minister for Education, Science and Training was taken up in the last election campaign with the announcement of our Investing in Our Schools program and a commitment to schools in Western Sydney that sees responsibility for capital works expenditure go directly to the schools. A number of my local schools immediately installed airconditioning. One of the schools was Henry Fulton Public School at Cranebrook. They were granted $41,000 to install airconditioning. Unfortunately, for the airconditioning to operate, a massive upgrade of the electrical infrastructure that passes by the school was required. It was the same for Cambridge Park Public School in Oxford Street.

So many schools in Western Sydney do not have the electrical infrastructure to support every one of their classrooms being airconditioned. Why? It is because the state electrical grid is so run down, so mismanaged and in such dire need of repair that for 10 years the state government has been perfectly happy to have a policy that schools do not get airconditioning unless they have temperatures of more than 42 degrees in classrooms. My goodness! Kids have switched off at about 36 degrees. The Investing in Our Schools program has had some excellent outcomes. Again it is the federal government stepping in where the state government has failed students in Western Sydney. Other schools in other states get pianos, musical instruments and wonderful additions to their schools, while schools in Western Sydney are getting airconditioning—a basic thing.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—