Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tonight I want to welcome the people of the Somerset Regional Council into the seat of Blair. With Queensland picking up the new seat of Wright, people of the Lockyer Valley and the Fassifern Valley from the seat of Blair have gone into that new seat. The seat of Blair has picked up about 2,000 electors in the vicinity of Springfield and Collingwood Park, and I am very pleased also to welcome the people of the Somerset Regional Council area into the seat of Blair. Somerset Regional Council is an amalgamated council of about 2,500 electors from the old Kilcoy shire from the federal seat of Fisher and about 11,000 electors from the seat of Dickson in the Brisbane Valley.

I want to talk tonight about what the Rudd government is doing for the schools in the Somerset regional area. The Rudd government is injecting $20.8 into 18 local schools in the Somerset region. I am pleased to say that I have travelled around and visited a number of those schools. Last Thursday I was at Fernvale State School, which is the biggest school in the Somerset regional area, and spoke to Mr Raine—as he was called repeatedly by the local children—the principal. David Raine has been there for 10 years. I visited the school and had a look at the multipurpose hall and the new resource centre which have been built in the very fast growing area of Fernvale. There has been $3 million injected into that area to support local jobs and to build vital infrastructure that will give the young people of the Fernvale area a modern school, which, quite honestly, is in need of a lot of funding. It is the case that our young people in that area need more infrastructure and more opportunity. Whether they live in Fernvale or Sydney or Melbourne, they should be given the same opportunity in life.

I am pleased that the Rudd government is putting this money in as part of the Primary Schools for the 21st Century program. There is also another $200,000 going into Fernvale State School as part of the National School Pride Program. That school in particular has grown enormously in the last few years. It is a school of over 500 young people in one of the fastest growing areas in South-East Queensland. Recently the Somerset Regional Council approved another 1,100 lots. It is a very, very rapidly growing area. The Rudd government is supporting local jobs in the area by providing world-class educational facilities. To see the enthusiasm of the young people and of the teachers and staff there, by reason of this wonderful investment in infrastructure and refurbishment, is simply a great pleasure. The BER, Building the Education Revolution, funding is a key element in the government’s nation-building economic stimulus plan of $42 billion.

There are 68 school projects funded in the Somerset Regional Council area to support local jobs, stimulate the local economy and invest in vital infrastructure for the future. To see the number of constructions that are going on, to see the school buildings, to talk to the local principals—I was in Kilcoy last Thursday speaking to the principals at the primary and high schools—and to see the real once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, as they would put it, for those young people in those areas was a great pleasure for me. These bricks and mortar constructions are not just about building edifices but about giving young people that chance in life and that library which they need so as to compete with their fellow Australians in the major capital cities.

Investment in schools in the Somerset region is long overdue. It has gone a long way to supporting local jobs during the global recession. Whether that project involves the refurbishment of a classroom—and I saw a number of those—or the construction of an outdoor learning area, a new library or science centre, as is going to happen in the Kilcoy State High School, it is very important. It is about social justice, improving our learning environment for our young people and giving them the quality of education which they and their parents expect and deserve and which all Australians aspire to for their children.