Belinda Neal (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased this morning to have the opportunity to talk about an issue that is extremely important in my community. Of the $77 billion that this government is spending to keep the economy going—I would say quite successfully—70 per cent is being spent on infrastructure. But the expenditure on Building the Education Revolution is, of course, an area where the community is most pleased to receive the funding, and it has had the most impact in all our schools. In fact, under the National School Pride and P21 projects, every single school in Australia has received some funding. In particular, schools in my electorate have all received funding.

I can tell you that from one end of the electorate to the other, everywhere I go, whether I am talking to school principals, teachers, staff, P&Cs or even the students themselves, they are constantly telling me how this allocation of funding is making a real difference in the way they can educate. It is giving them better facilities and making it easier for students to learn in the classroom. Under the National School Pride program in the seat of Robertson, my schools have received almost $7 million. In relation to P21 projects, in our primary schools, schools in my electorate have received some $42 million.

What I am most concerned about is the fact that the opposition saw fit to oppose such a worthy project. Despite the fact they opposed it in this House, and in the greatest hypocrisy we have unearthed, over and over again members of the opposition are going into their communities and pretending that they are delivering, when in fact they did everything possible in the House to stop this money being allocated. In particular, I call on the Liberal party representative in my seat, Darren Jameson, who is being dragged around by Malcolm Turnbull as their Liberal candidate, to call on Malcolm Turnbull to make an apology to my electorate and to say that he was wrong for having opposed the allocation of these funds. He should come out and urge the opposition to do the right thing by my community and by the Australian community, by supporting our schools and the Building the Education Revolution program.

See this speech in context