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

Obviously the shadow minister for education, caring nothing about education, does not want to listen to the answer—and the facts are perfectly clear. These vital resources are being delivered to schools which are continuing and which will educate students. The members of the opposition might think that is something to be laughed about; they might think that building 21st century infrastructure for Australian schools is all a bit of joke; they might think it is appropriate to come into this House and vote against it; they might think it is appropriate to go on the media and describe it as a low-quality spend; and then they might have the hypocrisy to try and get themselves in the photo when these funds are announced at local schools. But the Australian community know that this program is benefiting local schools, building the infrastructure they need for the 21st century and supporting local jobs.

This is a huge national mobilisation effort—$14.7 billion is unashamedly being delivered quickly to support jobs today during the global recession. People of goodwill around the country are turning their hands to make sure that this money is delivered in the form of construction sites and that it supports jobs right around the country. We will continue to work with those people of goodwill. We understand that from time to time in a program of this size there will be complaints and concerns. We have responded to a number of those. All we ask in the course of this process is that people of goodwill continue to work together to get the program delivered, and obviously we would prefer if, when reporting on these matters, there was some accuracy in the reports.

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