Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, where is Bondi Beach Public School, I wonder? She wrote to me on 8 May and said:

I write on behalf of all staff, students, parents and carers of Bondi Beach Public School to thank you for the funding received under the National School Pride program. The submission process involved wide community consultation and we are very happy that our efforts have been rewarded.

Unfortunately, the Principal of the Bondi Beach Public School was not able to write on behalf of her local federal member, the Leader of the Opposition, who opposed every dollar of investment in that school.

But what is and has been amazing about recent days regarding the Building the Education Revolution program is the orgy of opportunism coming from those opposite, who, urged on by the member for Higgins, come to Canberra and rush into the parliament to vote against Building the Education Revolution and then, in their local electorates, cannot wait to be associated with it. I am glad that the member for Franklin asked me this question because I think she would be a bit amazed to know that Senator Abetz—some mothers do have them—appears to be trying to take credit for a program that he opposes. Senator Abetz sent an email to my office seeking a list, in Excel format, of the names of the principals and the addresses of the schools that have been successful so that he could send letters of congratulations to them. He votes against it in the Senate and then wants me to give him the list of names and addresses so that he can send letters of congratulations!

If only it was just Senator Abetz. But, of course, the member for Menzies got himself into the act by writing to me and expressing his disappointment that he only got the list of the successful schools in his electorate under the National School Pride program a day before they were in his local newspapers. The question for the member for Menzies is: is he such an honest man that he is disappointed he did not get a press release out to his local newspapers in time to say that he opposed every dollar of that expenditure, or is he disappointed that he did not get an opportunity to fully associate himself with a program that he opposes? While the orgy of opportunism continues amongst those opposite—out in their electorates pretending they support the stimulus, here sitting behind the Leader of the Opposition voting against the biggest school modernisation program the nation has ever seen—we will be getting on with building those schools, supporting jobs today and the infrastructure we need for tomorrow.

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