Russell Broadbent (McMillan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will not forget the day at Bunyip Primary School—to enter into all that was happening. Obviously those kids have a love for books that is expressed in this day of dressing up. It must have taken them weeks and weeks to prepare the outfits they had on. I asked one little girl, ‘Where did you get your wig?’ She said, ‘That’s my hair.’ So there she was with her hair done so amazingly I thought it had to be a wig she was wearing.

There is always a downside to addresses like this, and that is the performance of the Victorian Labor government. Why has there been the neglect? That is what I cannot understand. Why has there been this neglect of schools? The Bracks government have had the last seven years collecting record taxes from GST, land tax, stamp duty. They have indexed every licence and every charge, so they have had huge increases in their taxes and charges. They still have their levy on petrol. So why is the Victorian school student not benefiting from that windfall? Why are there schools across Victoria that are not benefiting? Are they waiting to do some announcements before the election? Well, it is getting close to the election now; make the announcements. I do not want to name the schools, because I do not want to embarrass any of the principals across the area.

Because of the Investing in Our Schools program, for the first time we have been welcomed into primary schools—you must know that yourself, Mr Deputy Speaker Somlyay; you have been welcomed into primary schools, welcomed into secondary schools. We are investing in these schools. I know that the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education, Science and Training, who is sitting at the table, knows, because his colleagues are telling him they are being welcomed into schools. It is a great program and it has made a difference to people’s lives.

When I think about those kids at Bunyip Primary School, I wonder: why hasn’t the Bracks Labor government really made a difference to those kids? This investment should have happened ages ago. They are already getting $7 billion—seven thousand million dollars—coming through, from the federal government down. So there is the GST money, the land tax and the stamp duty; the increased cost of your fishing licence, your boating licence, your shooter’s licence, your car licence; and 65 other charges that the Bracks government have indexed each year, so every year it goes up, yet every year they are investing less.

When the member for O’Connor spoke he said that there had been a real increase in federal government spending of 4.9 per cent—an 8.9 per cent increase but a real increase of 4.9 per cent. When you play that across what has happened in the states, they have had no real increase in expenditure. So what the states have done is said: ‘All right; if the federal government is prepared to invest in our schools, we’ll back off, we’ll spend less. We don’t have to do this.’ In fact, there are cases where, as money has been invested in Roads to Recovery, some councils have backed off in their spending on roads and let the federal government take over—just a cost shift.

It is time to end the cost shifting in education in Victoria, particularly in my seat of McMillan. In the time that I have I cannot read out the list of all those that have received the benefit of the Investing in Our Schools program in McMillan, but what a great pleasure it has been to see nearly $4.6 million for both rounds. There were 78 projects in the first round for McMillan and 25 projects in the second round for the electorate, with total funding of $4.6 million for both rounds. In round 3 for government schools in Victoria there were 2,526 applications across the state, with 146 applications received from the electorate of McMillan. These are currently being checked for compliance, and announcements will be made early next year.

In secondary colleges there are people with a huge commitment, a really determined commitment. I think of Rod at Drouin Secondary College; they have been able to purchase a mower, carpet the library where the carpet was old and tatty. They have put in air conditioning. They have put in ICT improvements. They have got data projectors, stadium scoreboards and a sound system that was needed—$21,000 for that scoreboard and sound system, for their beautiful new building there.

I said when I started that I have seen a lot of programs go through federal governments, both Liberal and Labor, in my time, from 1984, when I first ran as a candidate. I have watched it, seen the programs. I have never seen a program like this that has been so well received by a nation. Parents know that, when you are investing in their schools, you are investing in their children, you are investing in the teachers. We appreciate what the teachers do, what the school councils do and we are batting for them to do a better job.

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