Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations and Social Inclusion. What steps through the education system is the government taking to stimulate the economy during the global financial crisis?

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

I thank the member for Cunningham for her question and know that she has devoted a lifetime to working in the education and skills area.

The Rudd Labor government obviously has set as one of its highest priorities delivering the education revolution we promised the Australian people at the last election. In these difficult economic days, with the global financial crisis and global recession bearing down on our economy, we have determined that in terms of stimulating the economy there is no better investment than investing in education and training. We made a decision on 3 February this year, when we announced a range of initiatives to assist households and stimulate the economy, that education would be at the top of the list.

Through our Nation Building and Jobs Plan the government will provide a back-to-school bonus of $950. These payments are going out to 1.5 million families with over 2,760,000 children aged four to 18. This back-to-school bonus is to help those families with the costs of returning kids to education and training at the start of this year—and, obviously, every family knows that those bills come in when children return to school.

This back-to-school bonus was, of course, designed to provide immediate short-term support to those families and to provide an immediate short-term stimulus to the Australian economy. Of course, it will be followed with our unprecedented historic investment in schools right around the country. Indeed, when we consider the Rudd government’s Nation Building and Jobs Plan, the single biggest area of investment is in the nation’s schools.

Barry Haase (Kalgoorlie, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Roads and Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You sound so genuine!

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What about those without a job?

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Are you going to do it like the computers in schools? How are the computers going?

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

Of course we have members opposite interjecting because they opposed these payments to families and they oppose this investment in schools. They oppose schools around the country being upgraded—that is, they oppose $12.4 billion of investment in primary schools. They oppose $1 billion of investment in science and language centres for secondary schools. They oppose $1.3 billion of investment in our national school pride program. These programs are there to make sure that children in this country are learning in 21st century facilities, but these programs are also there to ensure that there is support for jobs right around the nation.

As members in this House know or, at least, those members who support their local schools know, schools are in communities right around the nation. Even very small communities have a primary school and consequently these programs will enable capital and infrastructure development in schools right around the country.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Are you going to open them all, Julia? We just want you to deliver a program!

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

The members opposite might call out and might moan about this package but the great truth is they voted against it. Had they been the government, none of these payments would have flowed—no payments to assist families with the costs of going back to school, none of these big investments for schools right around the country, no investments in trade training centres and no investments in the digital education revolution. This is a government that is not only delivering what it promised but is delivering an historic new investment in schools right around the country. Members on this side of the House are proud of it, members on that side of the House would prefer to see local schools go without new facilities and local tradespeople go without work.