John Forrest (Mallee, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to my feet because I do not share the enthusiasm that the member for Braddon has with respect to the so-called education revolution proposed by the new government. I am particularly disturbed to see that, despite not mentioning this during their campaign, they have made a decision to axe what has been an excellent program in delivering capital support to country schools. I refer to the $1.2 billion Investing in Our Schools program. To their credit, I accept the decision that they have made to roll this appropriated money into other programs of their own. I am on my feet to make a plea that they reconsider the reallocation of that generous appropriation just for the use of laptop computers in schools because I do note that their policy exempts primary schools.

There are actually 125 schools contained within the federal division of Mallee—I imagine that there would be very few members in this place who have that many schools—of which 86 are primary schools. In addition to that, we have in Victoria a model referred to as a P-12, which is the whole 12 years of primary and secondary education combined into one campus. There are 12 of those schools. We are talking about 98 schools in country north-west Victoria which will miss out on this alleged education revolution if the government does not reconsider the manner in which it will reallocate that $1.2 billion.

I have been so pleased, having argued very strongly whilst in government for a program like this to meet the needs of country schools. Many of them, particularly the primary schools, are very small—there are a huge number of schools that would have less than 20 students—but, in rural, isolated locations, those are decisions that families make so that their children do not have to spend an enormous amount of time, particularly at a primary school age, to get to a big, structured school. That program delivered realistic capital investment like shade over the playground—a pretty simple concept, but when you consider the hot, arid climate of the north-west of Victoria, it is an essential need for young children to be protected from the sun. I was alarmed over the two or three years of the operation of this program to see some schools investing capital in the renovation of their toilets, which is some indication of the neglect on the part of the state government in respect of my schools.

I make this plea to those government members present: reconsider so that my primary schools in particular do not miss out on this revolution, which they want to be a part of. (Time expired)