Mike Symon (Deakin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak about the wonderful opportunity extended to every primary and special school in my electorate of Deakin and right across Australia. The opportunity comes from the Building the Education Revolution program and is known as the Primary Schools for the 21st Century program. On Monday, 4 May this year I was very pleased to have the Deputy Prime Minister, the Hon. Julia Gillard; the state Premier of Victoria, the Hon. John Brumby; and the Victorian Minister for Education, the Hon. Bronwyn Pike, visit my electorate to make an announcement on education funding at Burwood Heights Primary School. Money for 382 projects at 361 primary schools across Victoria, a total of $686 million, was announced by the Deputy Prime Minister for the construction of multipurpose halls and libraries and the replacement or refurbishment of classrooms—and that is only under round 1 of the program.

Four of these schools are in my electorate of Deakin, and Burwood Heights Primary School is one of them. Burwood Heights Primary School received $2.5 million for the construction of a new multipurpose hall, a hall large enough to hold all the students in the school. Currently, the school only has a small hall, which simply cannot fit all the students and teachers in at the same time, and when parents come along for assemblies and special events the space seems even smaller. I know that on their awards day they could only have half the school there—there simply was not enough room.

The Premier also announced funding—another $2.5 million—for Burwood Heights Primary School to undertake a major refurbishment concurrently with the building of the new multipurpose hall. That is a total of $5 million for a great school that was sorely in need of upgrading. The Premier also announced that another 112 schools would be funded in the Victorian state budget for $402 million through the Victorian Schools Plan. That is part of the total of $1.9 billion in investment over four years. This is certainly a great opportunity for partnership between the federal and state governments.

Of course I should mention the other three schools that received funding under round 1 of the Primary Schools for the 21st Century program in my electorate. Burwood East Primary School received $2 million for a new multipurpose centre. Currently they do not have a building to meet inside at all. Blackburn Primary School received $3 million for a new multipurpose hall. Their hall at the moment does not fit in everyone that is there. St Luke the Evangelist Primary School received $2 million for an upgrade to their school.

Investing in infrastructure and supporting local jobs at a time of global recession is vital for our economy. Many people have heard of the Rudd government’s $42 billion economic stimulus plan, and these school projects are just the beginning for Deakin. Seventy per cent of the stimulus package is being spent on infrastructure, supporting jobs for today and providing badly needed public and community facilities for tomorrow. That is infrastructure such as roads, rail, ports, schools and community and sporting facilities.

The Liberal Party voted against this package in the parliament. If it were up to them, not one school would be refurbished and not one new school hall or multipurpose centre would be built. As for support for jobs, where would that be?

There are another 29 schools in line for over $60 million of federal funding for similar projects in Deakin in round 2 and round 3 of the Schools for the 21st Century program. They are schools that are full of good people—students, parents and teachers—but schools that are old and run down and not fitted out for learning in the 21st century. Many were built in the 1960s and are well in need of the attention. And this is where the National School Pride program comes in. Every school in my electorate of Deakin has received between $75,000 and $200,000 for maintenance or minor refurbishments and these jobs have already started in schools, supporting jobs in our community.

Finally, I would especially like to thank Lisa Yeoman, the acting principal; Fatoula Reynolds, the school council president; and especially Michaela, Rhys, Benjamin and Nathan, who are wonderful representatives for their school at Burwood Heights. It was a great day and I look forward to going back to see them again.

See this speech in context