Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Like many MPs at the moment I am in the midst of a wave of opening school buildings as part of the Gillard government's Building the Education Revolution. Two weeks ago it was Manifold Heights Primary. In a couple of weeks time it will be Bell Park North Primary and Rollins Road Primary. And while we have all heard the turgid Liberal Party lines about school halls, their scripted talking points bear little resemblance to the unadulterated joy which is being experienced by schools on the ground across Australia.

Take the state-of-the-art Katsumata Centre at Kardinia International College which won the Geelong based building firm Lyons Construction the Regional Builder of the Year award from the Victorian Master Builders Association. Lyons Construction worked on 11 schools in the Corio electorate and many more across the region. I congratulate them for their building excellence, but it was the creation of jobs in their business that really underscores this program. Lyons estimates that every one of its 11 projects supported an average of 25 tradespeople. Businesses like Geelong based Ezy Shades Australia say demand for outdoor shade structures from the schools sector kicked in at just the right time when work in the domestic sector had all but dried up. That meant ongoing work for six people and their families.

Or consider the truly impressive multipurpose library and classroom building at Holy Family Primary School that uses rammed earth, timber and glass to create a cutting edge 21st century environment. For Sonal Dave, a young Geelong architect, this was the chance to spread her design wings with her first commercial project. The result is stunning.

Other schools also have great stories to tell. With the $1.32 million it received, Anakie Primary was able to build an entirely new school, replacing a range of ageing buildings that extended back 130 years. For the first time students have a sick bay, new library and meeting rooms.

These are all part of a steady process of improvement resulting in new buildings at every primary school and new facilities at many of our secondary schools. There have been issues along the way. At Manifold Heights Primary School parents were keen to customise their building, which was a template design. But we worked closely with the school community and Eleanor O'Malley, the school council president, said at the official opening last month that there was no doubt that the new prep rooms, art room and library are a fantastic asset for the school.

The Building the Education Revolution is the Australian government's single biggest investment in education since federation. A total of $102 million was made available to schools within the Corio electorate. Across the Corio electorate there are now 17 new libraries, 23 new school halls, many dozens of new class rooms, language centres, ICT centres, gymnasiums, sheltered areas for outdoor learning and refurbished playgrounds. For some schools, it is the first major injection of capital funds since they opened 30 or 40 years ago. Portable classrooms have made way for bright, clean, contemporary learning spaces that can accommodate group and individual learning. The BER has been the flagship program of the federal government's stimulus strategy to keep people working during the global financial crisis. The wonderful legacy will be utilised and enjoyed by students across our country for decades to come.