Kay Hull (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Cowper is exactly right. With this amendment, it is hoped that the funds will flow and become available far more quickly. The funding applications received from the Riverina electorate included requests for airconditioning, which shows there are still small rural schools trying to cope in extreme summer weather conditions without effective cooling. The majority of them, which I have just listed and highlighted, are for shade structure.

In December and February the temperatures in my electorate reach well over 45 degrees, and in some of these areas it is 45 to 48 degrees day after day. There is no airconditioning in public schools and no shade in public schools. What we needed to do was assist these P&Cs, the parents of the children who attend these schools, to feel more confident in sending their children off to school, knowing that they can learn within a cooler and more pleasant environment and that they have a place in the shade to play. The projects included other things such as playground equipment and sporting infrastructure, and water infrastructure for ovals so that children can have and compete in sports and so they can have a physical culture environment in their schools.

This funding has been vital in securing a number of smaller projects that schools desperately needed but which the state government has never seen as a priority. A part of our Investing in Our Schools funding in the Riverina electorate was $300,00 for the Wagga Wagga Christian College. I have just heard the member for Shortland say that ‘these rich private schools’ are the recipients of this funding. Can I say that the Wagga Wagga Christian College is not a rich private school. In fact, this school was built by the hands of the parents and students, from the ground up. I have been there. I have painted. I have done roofing. I have put up guttering. These kids and these families are not from rich backgrounds. They are probably some of the most underprivileged people within the City of Wagga Wagga, yet their commitment to ensuring that the education of their children is in the form they want has seen them deliver this infrastructure and this fabulous school with this fabulous ethos, yet they are supposedly a ‘rich private school’. Well, hello! No, I don’t think so!

This project at Christian College included the refurbishment of the library and the installation of equipment and sun screens on our very hot west-facing walls. In addition to these projects, dust extraction equipment is to be installed in the school’s workshop and the existing kiln room is to be refurbished in order to have better health environments for the children attending the school so that they are able to enter into some of these areas and move on to the extraordinarily beneficial trades and services areas.

The Investing in Our Schools funding is there for government and non-government schools, but it is just one commitment that this government has made in providing the children of today, our adults of tomorrow, with the best education possible. In the Investing in Our Schools projects we received community funding for these P&Cs that strive to achieve. For parents, their child’s wellbeing is important, and they commit so much energy and so much time. I know that my own daughter-in-law spends so much time at my grandsons’ schools, and they are public schools, assisting with the P&C, running the tuckshop and doing the fetes, the sewing and the cooking—doing everything that she can. It is almost a full-time job for her to invest in her children’s education in the state school. The wellbeing of her children is important, as the wellbeing of every child is important, and we should be ensuring that we have the best facilities within the school environments.

Through working bees and various other commitments in helping the teaching staff, these parents and friends make sure the environment of these institutions is the best that it can possibly be. Schools in the bush are often the heart of the town or village they are in. It is important to keep this partnership between the government and these communities in order to build relationships and achieve the aims and objectives for the schools. Eurongilly Public School, one in a list of schools, received $50,000 for playground equipment. With just eight pupils at that school, it is the heart of the very close Eurongilly community. For them to raise $50,000 to put in some playground equipment would have been very difficult. They simply do not have the critical mass to draw from on fundraisers, so for eight students this has been an absolute godsend.

There were recent bushfires in the surrounding areas, and hundreds of parents and friends in the wider community, right across the electorate, all showed their support for the school just after the blaze ripped through in checking that all the buildings were still standing. They own this whole procedure; they own this school. Their heart and soul is in this school. They were terrified that, if the school was not still standing, they would lose their school. Everyone came from the districts all around to make sure that that school was left standing so that it could continue to be the backbone of the community. They received a $50,000 grant for their playground equipment.

I am not quite sure of the date of the press release by the member for Jagajaga—I think it was on 27 February. I received a call from my local radio station, 2WG, advising me of the accusations of the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, the shadow minister for education and the member for Jagajaga, Jenny Macklin. Her press release accuses the coalition of rorting the Investing in Our Schools program by delivering more funding into electorates held by The Nationals and, moreover, as the member for Shortland said, into these marginal seat electorates.

I was absolutely staggered by her complete lack of knowledge and understanding as to why she named my electorate in this press release. She named my electorate as being third on the list of electorates having received the highest amount of funding. I was staggered at her lack of knowledge and understanding as to why my electorate of Riverina needs so much funding. My electorate of Riverina needs funding because the New South Wales state Labor government has absolutely starved the conservative held electorates of funding. Do not make accusations from the opposition side of the House about funding going to federally held coalition seats. Make accusations about the state government, which is starving my conservative held electorate of funds for my schools. I was absolutely staggered when I saw this press release come out with these accusations.

It is an absolute disgrace, and shame on the so-called Country Labor in New South Wales. I call it a so-called Country Labor because—as can be witnessed by every Hansard from the New South Wales state parliament—it is a Country Labor that has never voted against their city Labor counterparts. They have never voted any differently, even when the policy and the decision makers discriminate against the electorates that their MLCs—such as Country Labor MLC Tony Catanzariti in the Riverina—represent. He does not even have an office in the Riverina. Where does he have his office? In Sydney. They do not vote against anything.

I can stand here and say categorically that Country Labor is a sham and a farce. I would say that Country Labor were different from their city Labor counterparts if I could see one shred of evidence that they were going to vote against their city counterparts on policies and decisions that impact on country people—and that impact is considerable and happens time after time.

The member for Jagajaga dares to complain about the amount of money that the coalition government gave to my electorate of Riverina—my electorate; the electorate of a National Party member—in order to prop up and provide assistance to the many thousands of mums and dads in P&Cs there. That was to assist them because they have been discriminated against. I find it an absolute disgrace that the member for Jagajaga should put out such a press release and not recognise that conservative held seats in the states have been starved of funds in the education sector. That is the reason the federal government has had to come to the aid of these schools.

The local Country Labor representative has failed the people whom I represent in my conservative held seat of the Riverina and surrounding district miserably, and he continues to fail them. He generally takes all of the credit for any announcements but no responsibility for any decisions that impact on any of the areas around the Riverina. He goes into hiding into his office in Sydney or cannot be found at all.

I am very proud—extraordinarily proud—to have seen the very good applications that were put in by all of those schools across my electorate. I sent out a round of funding applications, directions and guidelines to every school in my electorate. Every single school was encouraged. They got application forms. I did not leave anything to chance, and I am sure no coalition member did, either. We knew that our schools needed our support. We were appreciative of the minister’s attention to ensuring that we could get our schools these fine things that they were lacking. We knew that the schools were not able to raise the money to deliver them, so we left nothing to chance. We sent them out the application forms, we advised them that they should be filling them in and we gave them the guidelines. We were diligent. And of course their applications were good.

Every application from the Riverina and every single dollar that I have ever been granted has integrity. Every single dollar that has come into the Riverina stacks up. It all has integrity. I am appalled at the fact that people have come into this House and accused the people whom I represent of being pork-barrelled. The public state schools in my electorate are all significantly challenged in many areas. If the member for Jagajaga wants to call water tanks, playground shade structures, airconditioning in areas of 45-degree heat and playground equipment pork-barrelling, I say to the coalition, ‘Come on down and pork-barrel my electorate every day of the week.’

This money is going to the people who deserve it and need it, and to people who have all demonstrated integrity in their application forms and been judged on that integrity. It is absolutely appalling that the integrity of the parents in my electorate, the P&Cs, the children, the headmasters and the teachers of our great school system is being questioned by the member for Jagajaga.

As I said, the Investing in Our Schools program has been an exciting initiative that has enhanced the education of many of the children whom I represent. I am pretty excited about having been a part of the delivery process. Rather than be ashamed, as the member for Jagajaga thought I should be, of my positioning in this little table—

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