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

My question is to the Prime Minister. Does the current Prime Minister agree with the former Prime Minister’s statement from these leaked minutes of the Labor caucus that the waste and mismanagement of her own school hall program was one of the three great failures of this government? After three wasted years and billions of wasted dollars, isn’t this a government that is just going from bad to worse?

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

I thank the Manager of Opposition Business for his somewhat predictable question. Can I say to the Manager of Opposition Business that I know he is still trying to recover from the embarrassment of failing to call a division on the legislative proposition about a judicial inquiry into Building the Education Revolution that he had been spruiking everywhere, so I understand that there is some embarrassment catch-up in the asking of this. But let me give to the Manager of Opposition Business effectively the answer I gave in the parliament yesterday, which is that the hypocrisy of the opposition on this question is rank, it is manifest, it is everywhere. Just as they come into this parliament during parliamentary days and rail against Building the Education Revolution, the moment they get back to their electorates they cannot wait to stand next to a Building the Education Revolution project and get their photos taken. They cannot wait to get their newsletters out and pretend that somehow it was their strident advocacy for their electorate that brought these projects to their electorate. I am proud, and every member of the government is proud—

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

Mr Speaker, I raise a point of order. The Prime Minister was asked whether she agreed with the former Prime Minister’s assessment that it was one of the great failures of the government and I ask you to bring her back to the question.

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

The member for Sturt would acknowledge that the question goes on further and the matters that the question added after the part that he has just quoted in the point of order opened the scope for a lot of matter to be directly relevant in response.

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

Let me say again that I am proud, and every member of the government is proud, that through Building the Education Revolution we supported Australian jobs. There is nothing more important to the welfare of Australian families than having parents in work—nothing more important. If we look around our world and look at the circumstances of other economies as they have been hit by the global financial crisis, we see where we could have been. We see where we could have been with an unemployment rate with an 8 in front of the figure or maybe a 9 in front of the figure, with that meaning hundreds of thousands of people unemployed, hundreds of thousands of people at risk of not being able to pay their mortgages or pay their rent, families having their homes repossessed, their mortgages no longer being able to be paid, with everything that means about the future for those families. We were not going to stand by and see that. We understand that the opposition was prepared to stand by and see that but we were not. That is why we provided economic stimulus, why it was targeted and timely, why it was provided to areas of national need like schools to give them the facilities that they will need for the future. Of course these major projects require oversight and as the relevant minister, apart from the oversight built into the program, I also commissioned Brad Orgill to bring his commercial skills to dealing with oversight of the program.

Let us contrast that positive program of action in the nation’s interest and in the interests of Australian families against the alternative advocated by those opposite: don’t provide economic stimulus, let people become unemployed, leave schools without vitally needed infrastructure. All those opposite have ever had their eyes on is the political strategy: call for an Auditor-General report and then when it does not find what they want dismiss it; call for further action and then when the Brad Orgill report does not find what they want dismiss it; try and advocate for a judicial inquiry and then not even bother to come in and call a division and have a vote. We will leave them with their failed political strategy while we get on with the national interest. It is about supporting jobs, it is about supporting families—it is a pity the member for Sturt does not understand that.

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

Mr Speaker, I seek leave to table the minutes where it says that the third failure—

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

Leave is not granted.

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

of the government was waste and mismanagement, and the—

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

Leave is not granted. Retreat.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You idiot.

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

The Leader of the House will withdraw.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is one of the nicest things I have said! I withdraw, Mr Speaker.

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

I am sure there will be a distillation of whether it was a nice thing or not, but in this circumstance it is something to be withdrawn.