Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and Minister for Social Inclusion. Will the Deputy Prime Minister update the House on what the government is doing to invest in education infrastructure and on the reaction from the community to this investment?

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

I thank the member for Franklin for her question. I also thank her for the opportunity I had recently to visit Blackmans Bay Primary School, in her electorate, where I announced the successful Tasmanian primary schools for the first round of Primary Schools for the 21st Century under the Building the Education Revolution program. I know that the member for Franklin, as a member who is in touch with her local community, is delighted that 50 schools in her electorate have already been allocated $31.9 million for 62 projects as part of Building the Education Revolution.

These benefits for local schools and for local jobs in the electorate of Franklin are examples of what is happening right around the country. As members on this side of the House are clearly aware, the biggest school modernisation program in this nation’s history is the single biggest part of the government’s $42 billion economic stimulus strategy, our Nation Building and Jobs Plan. It is a plan that is all about supporting jobs today while we build the infrastructure we need for tomorrow in almost 10,000 schools right around the country.

Already the government has announced rounds 1 and 2 of the National School Pride program, totalling $1.3 billion, which has already been allocated to 9,490 eligible primary and secondary schools around the country for 13,176 projects. And many of these projects have already started, meaning that schools around the country are a hive of activity, supporting local jobs and supporting local tradies.

In addition, I have announced the first 1,499 primary schools that will receive up to $3 million each through round 1 of the Primary Schools for the 21st Century program. This will total 2,010 projects approved at a value of $2.83 billion.

So with just these two programs to date the Rudd government is supporting 15,186 projects and injecting $4.13 billion of construction activity into our economy. This has been well received by those who care about education. I take you to a letter I received from Maria Hardy, the Principal of Bondi Beach Public School.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Yes, where is Bondi Beach Public School, I wonder? She wrote to me on 8 May and said:

I write on behalf of all staff, students, parents and carers of Bondi Beach Public School to thank you for the funding received under the National School Pride program. The submission process involved wide community consultation and we are very happy that our efforts have been rewarded.

Unfortunately, the Principal of the Bondi Beach Public School was not able to write on behalf of her local federal member, the Leader of the Opposition, who opposed every dollar of investment in that school.

But what is and has been amazing about recent days regarding the Building the Education Revolution program is the orgy of opportunism coming from those opposite, who, urged on by the member for Higgins, come to Canberra and rush into the parliament to vote against Building the Education Revolution and then, in their local electorates, cannot wait to be associated with it. I am glad that the member for Franklin asked me this question because I think she would be a bit amazed to know that Senator Abetz—some mothers do have them—appears to be trying to take credit for a program that he opposes. Senator Abetz sent an email to my office seeking a list, in Excel format, of the names of the principals and the addresses of the schools that have been successful so that he could send letters of congratulations to them. He votes against it in the Senate and then wants me to give him the list of names and addresses so that he can send letters of congratulations!

If only it was just Senator Abetz. But, of course, the member for Menzies got himself into the act by writing to me and expressing his disappointment that he only got the list of the successful schools in his electorate under the National School Pride program a day before they were in his local newspapers. The question for the member for Menzies is: is he such an honest man that he is disappointed he did not get a press release out to his local newspapers in time to say that he opposed every dollar of that expenditure, or is he disappointed that he did not get an opportunity to fully associate himself with a program that he opposes? While the orgy of opportunism continues amongst those opposite—out in their electorates pretending they support the stimulus, here sitting behind the Leader of the Opposition voting against the biggest school modernisation program the nation has ever seen—we will be getting on with building those schools, supporting jobs today and the infrastructure we need for tomorrow.