Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

He was louder than I was, yes! Thank you. I had to stop there because it was interrupting my train of thought. I do not present written speeches, so I needed to be able to gather my thoughts rather than listen to what the member for Tangney was saying on the telephone.

In both local government areas, the councils have consulted with the community, looked at projects that were ready to go and chosen wisely. They have chosen projects spread throughout their local government areas so as to provide benefits to all their residents. They will provide not only infrastructure but jobs for people within those local government areas. I welcome their embrace of the money given to them. I know that the projects they have chosen will be extremely useful and worth while in the community. The money that was provided through the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts will see much of the neglect of the previous government addressed. Obviously there will be still more to do. Our next budget will address some of those issues. This week there were some steps taken to address some of the neglect of the past and to look at stimulating the economy yet again.

This week we have had the second economic stimulus package. The first area I would like to concentrate on is the money going towards building schools for the future.

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