Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to take note of answers given by Senator Wong today. There were quite a few questions to Senator Wong. In fact, I think Senator Wong probably gets the most questions at any one time, and I have to say I think she does a great job in setting out the facts and letting those on the other side know what irrelevant types of questions they ask us. They actually waste a lot of time in this chamber.

Some of the things that were talked about today—Senator Fifield was just talking about Gonski. You would have to be pretty naive not to realise that at least one person on the other side in the other place has done a complete backflip in respect of Gonski—that is, Mr Pyne. Mr Pyne has led the opposition down the track so that its education policy is now in tatters. He has isolated himself from the states and the majority of education stakeholders, and he has been forced into a humiliating backdown in respect of his earlier position on education funding reform.

What I am referring to is his interview on Insiders that I watched on Sunday morning. What that actually said to the people of Australia was that the opposition have got no clear plan to improve Australia's educational outcomes. They have not supported, for example, the BER project, which has been so important to so many schools—in fact to every school—throughout Australia. In Tasmania we have heard about some other states having a few problems with the BER. Of course when you are doing a major rebuild and building so much major infrastructure in a set time frame, nothing is ever perfect. We have acknowledged that on this side. But in Tasmania, there is not a school I go to that does not speak highly of the BER—including last week when I was up at Yolla District High School in north-west Tasmania having a look at their facilities. It is a great school and the students are great. I was there with some of my Tasmanian Labor colleagues from the Senate. The school could not speak more highly of the money that this government had spent in the BER. Let it be on the heads of those Tasmanian senators opposite, when it comes to election time, that the people of Tasmania are very clear to us about that.

Another thing that was mentioned during question time was the economy. If we have a look at the national accounts figures from last week, it gives us time to pause and reflect on our remarkable economic performance, particularly in the four years since the global financial crisis. They are a bit of a reminder to us that, even in the face of many challenges, we should never lose sight of our strong fundamentals, the resilience of our workers and businesses and our proven track record in dealing with global instability. The Australian economy grew faster than that of every single major advanced economy, both in the June quarter and over the year to June.

It was particularly pleasing to see that that growth was based broadly around households. Household consumption rose, and was supported by low unemployment and rising incomes even though global turbulence is continuing. We are quite aware that that does weigh on consumer confidence. New business investment climbed, hitting a 40-year high as a share of GDP, as companies continued to invest in the future. New engineering construction reached a record high, with overall engineering construction 60 per cent higher over the year. Public spending increased, underpinned by investment in rail and energy infrastructure, and the rollout of the National Broadband Network—again, another great initiative by this government and one that the Tasmanian people just cannot get quickly enough. We have people ringing to say: 'When can we get on board? When does our turn come up? How can we get it?' It is not just Tasmanians but the whole population of Australia who understand the importance of making sure that we are moving forward and keeping up with the rest of the world, that we are able to communicate. (Time expired)