Stuart Henry (Hasluck, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Lilley is interjecting. I will go on and talk about Labor’s state electorate seats shortly. Even so, 53 per cent of the funding in Tasmania and 67 per cent of the funding in the Northern Territory was in Labor held seats, somewhat confounding the claims by the member for Jagajaga. The assessment process for these grants is independent, and the government accepted in full the recommendations from the independent state based assessment advisory panels. These panels have parent and principal representatives who vote in the assessment process. State governments and the Commonwealth government do not have a vote in this process. What the opposition are concerned about are their Labor mates in state governments not being able to manipulate Commonwealth money.

I think any accusation of bias is just sour grapes from the opposition. They know that their mates in state Labor governments have failed to address the needs in schools. I do not know about other states, but in my home state of WA there is no excuse for this. The state Labor government there have a huge budget surplus, thanks to the boom in the resources sector. What do they do with it? They fund railways that never seem to get any closer to being finished, they ignore schools, they ignore hospitals and they ignore law and order. In fact, in this morning’s or yesterday’s West Australian it was reported that, in the first half of this financial year, the Western Australian government had made a surplus of over $1 billion. It is interesting to note also that some of the schools in the state Treasurer’s electorate of Belmont, a Labor seat, are benefiting from the Howard government’s Investing in Our Schools program. They are not missing out on available opportunities.

The member for Brisbane said that this is not a state versus Commonwealth issue. This is absolutely right: it is about adequately funding our schools, because the state Labor governments and territory governments are not funding schools in an effective and appropriate way. No wonder schools are falling over themselves to take advantage of the funds available in the Investing in Our Schools program.

Once again, the Howard government provides the funding and puts in place an independent assessment program only to suffer the sort of abuse that we have had from Labor members on the other side. At least we know that those of us on this side of the House are part of something positive for education and for our children and the children of this country.

I would like to outline some of the schools in the federal electorate of Hasluck that have benefited from this program. The Gosnells Primary School has recently been informed of a grant of $69,459 under the approved projects under the Investing in Our Schools program. Gosnells Primary School is one of the oldest primary schools in the Hasluck electorate. It is in what would have to be considered a very strong state Labor seat. The state Labor government has ignored this school for years. The Gosnells Senior High School has just received $150,000 for a whole range of programs to help provide amenities for students at that school, including shade structures, an outdoor area upgrade, classroom improvements and playing field upgrades.

High Wycombe, in the strongly held state Labor electorate of Belmont, held by the state Treasurer, Eric Ripper, have just received $72,000. They are more than happy to see these funds coming into their school from the Investing in Our Schools program, because they are providing the sorts of amenities that all of our children should have at their schools. Similarly, the Yule Brook College in Maddington, another state government held seat, has just received $72,000 from the Investing in Our Schools program. I see the member for Jagajaga is in the House now, so it is very pleasing to be able to let her know that state Labor seats are certainly benefiting very well through the Investing in Our Schools program. This bill will do a lot to help schools all around Australia and schools like the Corridors College in the electorate of Hasluck are great beneficiaries of the Howard government’s program and the changes that are occurring in education.

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