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

My question is addressed to the Deputy Prime Minister, the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Minister for Education and Minister for Social Inclusion. I refer the minister to revelations in today’s Victorian Herald Sun that the schools stimulus fiasco will amount to as much as $37,500 per student in some Victorian schools with fewer than 10 students. Does the minister maintain that the program is delivering value for money for Australian taxpayers?

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

I thank the member for Mallee for his question and I am aware, of course, that the member for Mallee in his electorate knows how much his local schools have benefited from this program. The member for Mallee, of course, when he is back in his electorate, is very keen to be associated with the expenditure in those local schools and the benefits that the Building the Education Revolution program brings. But when he comes to Canberra, when he is out of Victoria, he needs to fall behind the Leader of the Opposition’s opposition to supporting jobs today and to supporting expenditure on schools. I am aware of the article that the member refers to. What the member may know about the Building the Education Revolution program that he voted against—or maybe he does not, but he ought to know it about the program—is that it is correlated to school size. What he also ought to know about the program is that it is possible for schools to put in projects that are under their allocation. On some of the divisions and ratios that appear in that Herald Sun article today, that is exactly what has happened. A school has put in for a project that is under its allocation and consequently, when you then divide that number by the number of students, you get the variations in ratios that are reported in that Herald Sun report.

This is a program rolling out in every primary school across the country to bring new school capital. It is rolling out in every school across the country to bring vitally needed repairs. It is rolling out in 537 schools around the country to bring science and language centres. Schools around the country are welcoming this investment—including, of course, in the electorate of Mallee. The thing for the opposition and indeed the member who asked the question to explain is whether he is prepared to go to each school in his electorate and look a principal and a parent representative in the eye and say, ‘I don’t think your school should have the benefit of these facilities,’ and then whether he is prepared to walk the main streets of the towns that he represents and meet local tradespeople and look them in the eye and say—

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

Mr Speaker, on a point of order: the question very deliberately asked the minister whether she believed that this was value for money. I ask you to draw her back to that part of the question.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Deputy Prime Minister will respond to the question.

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

And, to conclude, he should explain whether he is prepared to look tradespeople in the eye and say, ‘I don’t believe that we should be supporting your jobs during the days of the global recession.’ People who care about education and supporting jobs today are supporting the Building the Education Revolution program. It is a great pity for the schools in Mallee that their local member does not.