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

I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. It is important, because it goes to the government’s nation building for recovery plan in response to the worst global recession in 75 years. We do note the Liberal Party’s continuing opposition to supporting jobs during a global recession, and also its continuing opposition to supporting the biggest school modernisation program in the nation’s history.

The Leader of the Opposition has asked me a specific question, so I will answer it with some facts. The Building the Education Revolution component of our nation-building plan is supporting 24,000 individual projects that have been approved in around 9,500 schools across the country. These projects, of course, are benefiting students and supporting local jobs. More than 12,500 projects are underway and more than 400 projects are already completed, delivering tens of thousands of jobs around the nation.

These unprecedented efforts to support these jobs are being coordinated by coordinators at the national level and the public servants who support them, by the leaders of the Catholic and independent school authorities and by coordinators at state and territory government levels and the public servants who support them. I would like to thank the people across state, independent and Catholic education authorities who have worked so hard on this program that is vital to supporting jobs today and also supporting the nation’s productive future.

On the question of the Abbotsford Public School, which the Leader of the Opposition has raised with me, I can advise him of the following facts. The proposal about the development at the school was accepted by the school community on 25 May. That is, they endorsed the proposal that came from the New South Wales government, as the responsible education authority, through to the national government. So it was accepted by the school on 25 May. In terms of the proposal itself, it is about demolishing a building that was constructed—

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