Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak against this disallowance motion. At the outset, I want to place on the record that I deeply respect Senator Allman-Payne's commitment to education during her career and have no doubt that the students who had the privilege of being in her class benefited from her commitment to education. I put that on the record.

The Greens have an ideological obsession against anything which is in the private sector. It doesn't matter what it is, whether it is private health insurance or non-government schools; the Greens have an ideological obsession against it. They have an ideological obsession against private education, against private health insurance, against the private sector, and a complete lack of understanding that Australia has benefited—greatly benefited—from the fact that we have both a public and private education sphere and a public and private health insurance sector. We have greatly, greatly benefited from that balance between the public and the private sectors. But, again and again, they come into this place with their ideological, philosophical obsessions against what has worked well in practice in terms of providing the optimum outcomes for the optimum number of Australians. And this is just another example.

So let me put on the record: I am very happy the Greens have moved this motion because it will provide me an opportunity between now and the next federal election to advise all those families in the Green-held seats of Ryan, Brisbane and Griffith in South-East Queensland that the Greens despise the fact that they save and scrimp and do everything they possibly can to provide their children with the best educational outcomes that they perceive should be provided to them.

I'll provide those parents with every single opportunity to understand that the Greens oppose their right to send their children to a non-government school. I'll make sure I remind them from this day to the next election. They oppose private health insurance and they oppose non-government education in non-government-owned schools, and I'll be reminding those families in those Green held seats in the south-east corner of Queensland.

The second point I want to make in relation to this disallowance motion is that it shows a complete misunderstanding of what is happening with capital construction costs. Capital construction costs have absolutely gone through the roof across this whole country, so the capital cost of building a new school building or facility to enhance the capital services and the environment for students going to non-government schools has gone through the roof. That is the reality, and those sitting on the other side of the chamber are absolutely part of the reason for that, because they took the only handbrake off the CFMMEU construction division. That handbrake was the Australian Building and Construction Commission. So now the CFMMEU is there running just about every single construction site at every single school just about across the whole of Australia, and you can add 30 per cent to the capital cost of constructing any public infrastructure. That is the whole reason why the government had to institute the so-called 90-day review of infrastructure projects, which has blown out by a further 100 days. It's because construction costs in this country have absolutely gone through the roof.

So let's call out this disallowance motion for what it is. It is an expression of the ideological contempt that the Greens political party has for non-government-owned schools. It's their ideological obsession—one of many—against anything in the private sector. They do not respect the sacrifices made by Australian parents to send their children to schools of their choice. Whether it be a religious institution providing a religious based education or any other sort of school in the non-government sector, that is simply not respected by the Australian Greens. So, between now and the next federal election, I look forward to reminding people living in the Queensland federal seats of Ryan, Brisbane and Griffith, including parents who are saving to send their children to non-government schools in those seats—there are many great secondary schools and primary schools in the non-government sector in those three Greens seats—that the Greens have an ideological obsession against the manifestation of their choice to send their children to a school of their choosing. I'll be looking forward to reminding people, including parents, of that fact between now and the next federal election.