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

If the allegation is that I am going to be repetitive talking about the benefits of this program to local schools, the answer is you betcha. On the question about the Evesham State School that the Leader of the Opposition has asked me, I made it clear in answer to an earlier question that no money will be spent at this school whilst it is in consultation about its future. That is a standard part of how the Building the Education Revolution program works. From the outset of this program we said we understand that education authorities—state, catholic, independent—work with school communities and from time to time schools open, schools close and schools amalgamate. That is an ordinary part of the way our education system works. If a school is facing closure or facing amalgamation, then education authorities would work through that process in their standard practice and obviously money would not be allocated and spent on school facilities in schools that are not going to be continuing as school facilities. We have had examples of that in this House in the past. Those examples have been raised by the opposition and I have explained it in the past.

If the Leader of the Opposition is somehow tossing and turning in his bed at night concerned that $250,000 is about to be spent at the Evesham State School and then it is going to close, can I tell him he can go and have a good night’s sleep—that is not what is happening. Can I also say to the Leader of the Opposition that if he wants to broaden his view then he may want to think to himself about how this program is supporting jobs right around the country during the worst global recession in 75 years. He might like to think to himself about how this is modernising our schools as needed for the future. If the Leader of the Opposition is going to lose sleep about anything, I think he should be losing sleep about his lack of support for those local jobs and his lack of support for schools around the country.

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