Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

The government welcomes the question. The reason we welcome the question is that it goes to a core element of the fact that we have an agenda for the future of education and those opposite do not. What we said in this place and in the national debate last year, as part of that education revolution that Australia needs to boost long-term productivity growth, to boost the performance of our schools and to provide the kids of working families across the country with an opportunity to get ahead, was to make sure that we had a digital revolution in the classroom.

There are two problems with that. One of the problems is that the nation lacks a high-speed national broadband network. That is problem No. 1. I would have thought that after 12 years those opposite might have lifted their finger on this, but no, not for the likes of them. We had about 16 different broadband policies from those opposite. Not one of them actually contributed to anything much that any of us could measure. That is problem No. 1. Problem No. 2 is that, when it comes to the ability of kids to connect to the digital economy and the digital education revolution in their classroom, there is an absence of sufficient computers. What we put forward is a practical plan of action on both.

In eight months in office, we have our program advancing for the national broadband network and, as that negotiation continues with the private sector, already we have gone through the first round of the allocation of funding and of the provision of grants to schools for the purchase of computers. I am advised by the Minister for Education and Deputy Prime Minister that already we have provided grants to 896 schools across the country for 116,000 computers. Given that we have, from memory, 2,685 secondary schools in Australia and in our first six months or so in office we have reached an agreement through the good offices of the minister to provide grants to 896 schools for the provision of 116,000 computers, here is my challenge to the shadow minister opposite. I presume that for those schools which might be in or near his electorate he would like to send the cheque back. Is that right?

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