Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Special Minister of State) Share this | Hansard source

Funded by taxpayers. It is going to put up over 8,000 stickers. Are we going to see the minister or Senator Arbib walking around in six months time with sticky tongues, having stuck these things on? Are we going to see an army of public servants out there putting these stickers on? On polling day, are we going to see the farcical situation where bags or some sort of coverage need to be put on to avoid breaching further provisions of the Commonwealth Electoral Act?

There is only one solution to this blatant politicisation of schools. There is only one solution to this deliberate attempt by the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister to politicise a government program: these signs must be removed. There is no excuse for these signs not to be removed. It is a farcical situation when the government believes it can get around this pork-barrelling exercise by putting stickers on those signs.

During question time, the minister spoke foolishly. I say that as someone who has actually got some time for the minister, but he has been badly briefed. In relation to the Investing in Our Schools Program, guess what we did not require the schools to do? Guess what we did not mandate? We did not mandate signs in schools talking about the Investing in Our Schools Program.