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

What a pleasure it is to rise in the House to celebrate the awarding of an enormous amount of money into my electorate of Riverina from this government—money that would not normally have gone to these very worthwhile and deserving projects in public and private schools. I am delighted to speak in support of the Schools Assistance (Learning Together—Achievement Through Choice and Opportunity) Amendment Bill 2007, which will mean a further opportunity for schools in my electorate to implement projects to enhance the education of their students and certainly to relieve the burden on many parents. As has become very obvious over the years, many parents and friends associations and parents and citizens associations are raising extraordinary amounts of money to assist in their children’s education and to benefit communities at large.

Since the Investing in Our Schools Program started, the Riverina has received a sensational amount of just under $10 million, with state schools receiving $7.8 million and the many Catholic and independent schools in the electorate being allocated a total of $2.1 million. In this round of the Investing in Our Schools Program the Riverina community’s parents, teachers, headmasters and, most of all, students have been the recipients of extreme value.

This program that has been delivered across the Riverina has been vital in securing a number of smaller projects that schools desperately need but which the state government has certainly not seen as a priority. In 2006-07 the Australian government increased its funding of state government schools by an average of 11 per cent while at the same time state Labor governments increased their funding by just 4.9 per cent. Had they matched the federal government’s increased rate of funding there would be an extra $1.4 billion for Australian state government schools. This demonstrates a concerning trend of neglect of state government schools by state and territory Labor governments.

I know that there was much concern, when we were putting money into the public school system—and I congratulate the government for having done so—that the more money we put in, the more money the states will take out of the system. That is generally their form. However, it is worth while to see the look on the faces of the mums and dads who continually and consistently work in the best interests of their schools and their communities when there is an amount of money put into their school that they have not actually had to raise themselves.

Many of the successful projects in my electorate have included simple things such as shade structures and all-important air conditioning. We have seen masses of computers made available to our country students, classroom improvements and a huge increase in library resources. From December through to March, almost into April, the temperatures in the Riverina can reach up past 45 degrees on many days. Some of the schools that I have in my electorate still have no air conditioning or appropriate shaded areas. The children do not have access to pleasant environments in which to learn and play. In our significant drought, we have bare dirt and dusty playgrounds. We have no ability to apply water—if there were any—or to be environmentally efficient in the way in which we use water.

The projects that we were able to fund from the Investing in Our Schools Program included things such as playground equipment, sporting infrastructure and water infrastructure for our ovals so that our children can compete in sports and have a physical and cultural environment within their school. One of the little schools, Nangus Public School, in my electorate was just thrilled that they had received a grant of $33,000 for playground equipment because in the 80-year history of the school there had not been any climbing and fitness equipment. Now they cannot keep the kids off the equipment. It has been a fabulous addition to the school.

Their children’s wellbeing is very important to parents and many of them commit much time and energy to assisting with their P&Cs, parents and citizens associations, or their P&Fs. They run the tuckshops and they prepare for school fetes and other fundraisers. They sew and cook and they spend time helping the classroom teacher with classroom maintenance and working bees across the school. We should ensure that we have the best facilities for children to learn in because this is important for their future. Small communities generally are so committed.

The drought has been a heavy burden on the people whom I represent, but they are still prepared to do what they can to ensure that their local school has vital equipment and maintenance applied to it. The schools in the bush in my electorate are often the heart of the town or the village that they are in and it is important to keep these partnerships between the government and our communities in order to build relationships and achieve the aims and objectives for the schools and their students. It is difficult, as I said, for smaller areas to raise an amount of money in these drought stricken times and that is why this government should be applauded for recognising and rewarding the P&Cs and P&Fs for their dedication to education in their communities. The smaller schools simply do not have a critical mass to draw on for fundraisers, and the continuing drought has a huge impact financially on many of the families in my electorate. They do all that they can. Sometimes they simply cannot spare the extra money to give to the school, but they certainly will always give of their time and labour.

The purpose of this bill is to provide increased funding for the Investing in Our Schools Program for government schools for 2007 and non-government schools for 2007-08 and to provide additional funding of $127 million for state government schools and an extra $54 million for our non-government schools. When the fourth round is complete, the total funding provided to Australian schools under the program will be almost $1.2 billion. Everyone was excited about the first $1 billion; it was so popular and it rolled out very quickly. This additional funding will be as welcome across my electorate as the previous Investing in Our Schools Program has been. It has received an overwhelming response from our school communities Australia-wide, with over 18,000 applications having been received over the first three rounds from the state government schools alone.

Recently I have been spending a lot of time in schools through the electorate of Riverina and we have celebrated as a community, as children, as teachers and as friends of the schools, the completion of many of these projects that have been very simple but so very effective. I have seen fantastic results. It is clear that these schools are very proud of their achievements and very proud of the ways in which their schools are operational and the ways in which they have been able to play a part in offering new facilities for both students and staff.

At Parkview Public School I recently attended a playground refurbishment. It was completed with $48,257 provided under the Investing in Our Schools Program. To see the enjoyment of the children was an absolute pleasure. Parkview is a wonderful school and I was very proud of the way they maintain their school and make it an extremely comfortable environment. Over the years the playground had eroded and become a dusty and sparsely grassed area. Health and safety issues were a concern for the students due to the fact that there was no real place to play and to enjoy outdoor activity. There is now a safer playground. The project included digging a trench around the edge of the playground to eliminate the effect caused by the roots of existing trees. The playground was levelled and loam was spread on the infants’ playground to cover the poor-quality soil. We laid turf over the infants’ playground to replace the existing bare or poorly grassed areas. We removed the existing woodchip soft-fall material from beneath the playground equipment and provided the most amazing rubber based soft-fall material with play designs underneath all of that play equipment to ensure that the one broken arm evident in the school on that day was something from the past and would certainly not happen in the future.

I still have around nine schools in the Riverina which have either not applied for funding or not been successful in securing funding. I welcome this additional funding for the program, because it will be targeted at these schools to ensure that they will have an opportunity to participate in this very competitively based scheme. It gives them an opportunity to participate by putting in their application for a maximum of $100,000.

I say this to the Hon. Brendan Nelson, the former Minister for Education, Science and Training, who is sitting at the table, who started this magnificent program: thank you very much, Minister, for having seen the need and the desire of members of this House to play a very important role in ensuring that the school parents, friends and children in our communities have been able to achieve equity and balance in the way in which their school facilities have been prepared. We thank you for that. I also thank the current Minister for Education, Science and Training, the Hon. Julie Bishop, for taking this up with a vengeance. I say to this government: congratulations for something that has been so successful; the joy among the people of my electorate that I have witnessed has been undeniable. We continue to look forward to the rolling-out of further projects in the region covered by the electorate of Riverina.

Another school that I attended recently is Yanco Agricultural High School. It was a fabulous visit. It is a boarding school, and its young students had not previously had an air-conditioned canteen area. When I was there I was so taken by all of the students, everybody in their very heavy serge blazers and their uniforms with ties done up to the neck, sitting in the canteen for their joint meal. I wondered how they could have possibly managed to enjoy their meal and to prosper from it when they had had no air conditioning in this canteen area for all of those years. But they now have air conditioning as a result of the Investing in Our Schools Program, and they were thoroughly enjoying their meal that evening in air-conditioned comfort.

There are a number of schools in a similar situation. Recently I visited Forest Hill Public School and had a fabulous morning with P&C members, enjoying the morning’s activities. We congratulated each other and celebrated the greening of their playing field. They have not been able to use their oval for a number of years but now, through the Investing in Our Schools Program, they are able to enjoy their playground. They are even putting in place a softball diamond, and they will soon be having a skipathon to raise money under the Jump Rope for Heart initiative. That was a terrific morning. I commend the bill to the House.

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