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

Plainly those opposite are embarrassed at the recitation of the funding allocations to the individual schools within their electorates. That is why every parliamentary device will be used by those opposite. They stand up and try to interrupt a clear description of what investments are proposed for individual schools within their area.

To go back to the member for Sturt’s electorate: Heritage College at Oakden, $2 million for the construction of a multipurpose hall with student amenities; Highbury Primary School library new construction, $1.6 million; Highbury Primary School hall refurbishment, $1.4 million; Hillcrest Primary School, $850,000; Klemzig Primary School, $2 million. I have only just got up to K; it goes all the way to Z.

I say to the honourable member for Sturt, therefore, that, when he is seeking at the dispatch box to launch a negative attack on this overall program, he has simultaneously a moral responsibility in this place to make it clear to each of those school communities which of the allocations to them he objects to. I would invite each member who would rise in this place to do the same because at the end of the day you cannot walk two sides of the street here.

I also say to the honourable member who has asked the question that the other rationale for what we have done through the school modernisation program is this: how do you boost also small business and jobs? I draw the honourable member’s attention to today’s Sensis survey that shows that confidence among small and medium sized businesses recorded the biggest increase on record in the three months to May. I was challenged earlier on about whether the government would be saying something positive about the economy. I note there is conspicuous silence on the part of those opposite. This, of course, comes on the back of the biggest increase in consumer confidence in 22 years. The survey states:

Again this quarter the Federal Government’s economic stimulus packages provided the main reason that SMEs—

See this speech in context