Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

On 19 November last year I did visit Fort Street High School with my colleague the member for Batman, the shadow minister for transport. There we reiterated Labor’s commitment to provide insulation for the kids at Fort Street High School. Those on this side of the House take the education revolution seriously. Part of giving young people the opportunity to have a proper education is making sure that their classes do not get disrupted every two or three minutes when planes go across.

Fort Street High School is at Taverners Hill. It is called Taverners Hill for a reason: because it is on a hill—it is up high. It is particularly affected by aircraft noise, which is why we—through the then shadow minister for transport, the member for Melbourne—promised in 1998, in 2001, in 2004 and in 2007 to provide insula-tion.

We on this side of the House take all of our commitments to the Australian public seriously. We did not come in and say, ‘We have core and non-core promises,’ like those opposite did. We take all of our commitments seriously. That is why we gave support to insulate Fort Street High School. The fact is that Fort Street High School is an old school. It is a heritage building—just like a similar school down the road, Newington, insulated at a cost of $15.5 million in 1995-96 dollars. That is over $20 million in today’s terms. But I think that is reasonable because I do not think that aircraft noise discriminates between public schools and private schools. I do not think how wealthy you are should determine that. That is why, when they were chairs—

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