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

My question is to the Minister for Education. I refer the minister to comments by Mr Gary Zadkovich, the deputy president of the New South Wales Teachers Federation, who said:

A school may receive an $850,000 trucked-in prefabricated classroom or library when it knows a fully furnished brick home would cost half …

Does the minister agree with Mr Zadkovich that there are too many reports of waste and mismanagement of this program to ignore any longer? Minister, when will you take responsibility for this systemic failure?

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

If you live long enough, you hear absolutely everything, don’t you? Now we have confirmed on the record in this parliament today the Liberal Party and the Australian Education Union in a cabal on education policy. Now I have heard everything. It would actually strike me as more strange if this cabal had not first come about regarding the My School website, where Australian parents in their millions—literally—got onto the My School website. Parents and the community were enthusiastic about getting this information. We on this side of the House, the government, are standing shoulder to shoulder with parents who want this information and, of course, facing—

Wilson Tuckey (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on two points of order: The first is to be found in standing order 104 and the other on the matter of right of reply. The minister is blaggarding a person who is not in this House. They do nothing else but use the privilege of this place to blaggard someone. She should cease doing it and get her courage up and go and front this bloke—

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

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

Order! The member for O’Connor will resume his seat. The House on both sides will come to order. The member for O’Connor has given free advertising for those who feel aggrieved with things about procedures that are open to them. The question was in order. The Deputy Prime Minister will relate her material to the question.

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

I take the fact that I am chastised by the member for O’Connor, so I will immediately begin blaggarding people in this House. The point goes to the education policy that is being advanced by the opposition, who are opposed to My School in a cabal with the Australian Education Union, the Greens and the Shooters Party to suppress this information in New South Wales. They are being invited by the New South Wales minister for education to lift the restrictions on the publication of this information in New South Wales. But there they are in their little cabal, with the AEU, the Liberal Party, the Shooters Party and the Greens—

Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Families, Housing and Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order on relevance. The minister is now blatantly defying your request that she come back to the subject matter of this question.

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

The Deputy Prime Minister has the call and she will relate her material to the response to the question.

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

I know I said the word ‘union’ and that has got Mr Work Choices going—

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

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

Order! The Deputy Prime Minister will come to the question.

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

On the question, can I say to the shadow minister that if he has any evidence that he believes should be investigated then we will investigate it. If he has a clip from the Sydney Morning Herald recording allegations from the Australian Education Union—which he knows nothing about and which he has not checked in any way, shape or form—we will investigate it. All he has done this morning is roll out bed and read the newspaper, and thought that that was enough for a question. The Australian people and his colleagues on the backbench, who are looking a bit cross-eyed at this point, will judge him on the weakness of that performance.

Meanwhile, we will get on with the job of delivering an education revolution to this country, including all of the things the opposition have opposed: the Building the Education Revolution; the national curriculum they want to rip up; the My School website, which has been described as a white elephant; our new money to disadvantaged schools—they have never used the word ‘disadvantaged’; our new money for teacher quality—they have never done anything about teacher quality; our new reforms, meaning that we pay the best teachers more to go to the disadvantaged classrooms that need them the most; our new reforms to bring the highest performing graduates into the teaching service; and new reforms to spread literacy and numeracy.

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

Blah, blah, blah!

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

And they describe that work as ‘blah, blah, blah’. Well, these are reforms that matter to the Australian community, Australian kids and the future of this nation. With going, ‘blah, blah, blah,’ you have just shown the Australian people the contempt in which you hold them—parents, children, teachers and principals in this country. You could not show more how unfit you are for office if you tried.

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

I remind the Deputy Prime Minister of the requirement to address her remarks through the chair.