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

I think it falls to me to introduce a thing called facts into this debate. I am not surprised that the Titanic came to the mind of the shadow minister when he gave his contribution because, with this motion to suspend standing orders, raised against the backdrop of, I think, the flattest question time that we have seen in many a long day from the opposition, what we have in fact seen today is the leader of a divided party just drowning. He is not even waving; he is just drowning. It is an embarrassing performance from the opposition. Let us remember that, at the start of this parliamentary fortnight, the opposition were out backgrounding, trying to capture any journalist they could find to write about their fiery question time attacks and the great assault that they were going to lead on Building the Education Revolution and on this government. But, as we move out of this parliamentary fortnight, what have we seen? We have seen the media spotlight on the poor tactics of the opposition and we have seen newspapers editorialising against the performance of the Manager of Opposition Business.

As this parliamentary fortnight draws to a close, let me assure the House that my greatest risk of injury in relation to Building the Education Revolution is getting knocked over at a local school by a Liberal member who wants to get in the photo shot and push me out of the way. That is my greatest risk of injury in relation to Building the Education Revolution. I certainly cannot afford to wear high heels when I go to local schools; I need plenty of traction on the ground, as they thump and buff at me to get in the shot. But of course whilst they conduct themselves like that out in their electorates, when they come into federal parliament and into federal parliament alone—it is only in this green chamber; only in this bubble—they criticise Building the Education Revolution. Back at home, they cannot wait to get in the shot. They then walk into this parliament and make criticisms. The shadow minister puffs himself up and gets red in the face when all these criticisms roll out. But of course when we look at these criticisms, held up to the light, the opposition’s criticisms have, overwhelmingly, turned to dust. Most particularly, the criticisms made by the shadow minister himself have turned to dust.

With respect to the criticism about Berridale—here he is with his ‘per square metre’ facts and figures—we actually went and had a look at that and, no, it was not true. Then the member for Sturt is in the chamber saying that I gave a solemn promise to the member for Bradfield to visit one of his schools and I have not honoured that promise and I have not got back to him—and, of course, when we hold that criticism up to the light, it is just not true.

Sometimes when allegations are raised we ask members if they will forward some evidence to help us investigate them. For example, we did that with the member for Mayo. He came back and said he would not forward the evidence. Then, of course, we have the member for Mitchell, who had the temerity to get back up on his feet today. The last allegation he raised in this parliament was simply not true. Then the member for Cook—who, I think, has been excluded from the parliament today for inappropriate conduct—raised an issue about Cecil Hills school and a comparison with another school building. When we held that up to the light, it was just not true. We had the Deputy Leader of the Opposition in here talking about administrative fees in the Northern Territory. We held that up to the light and it was just not true.

Members opposite might come in here with their litany of allegations, but if they are going to make allegations in this parliament then they need to actually show some evidence in relation to those allegations. Time after time after time, they have failed that test. They have made a series of false claims about Building the Education Revolution. They have made claims about cost blow-outs. The last schools program that required a government to go back to budget and get more money to fund it because of cost blow-outs was the Howard government’s Investing in Our Schools program. Then the opposition get a newspaper to publicise claims that they have broken down the number of science and language centres in schools in Labor seats versus non-Labor seats and that they found a deep and dark conspiracy distorting, apparently, away from coalition held seats. But when that claim is looked at objectively it is, of course, not true. The number of science and language centres in Labor seats, as a percentage, is actually less than the number of seats that are held in the House.

But perhaps the most breathtaking denial of the opposition about all of this—which really makes you have to wonder about how out of touch they are not only about the values and aspirations of ordinary Australians but also about a simple thing called reality—is that the Leader of the Opposition is now trying to write history backwards and say that the position of the opposition all along on Building the Education Revolution was that it was a damn fine idea, but they were always worried about the implementation and the rollout of it. Well, Leader of the Opposition, I do not know whether the stress of your job and the divisions in your party room are playing tricks with your memory, but that is simply not true. You marched into this parliament and, when asked to vote for the biggest school modernisation program in the nation’s history and asked to vote for supporting jobs in Australia in every community around the country during the days of a global recession, you did not talk about implementation risks—you simply said no. You sat on those seats over there and you voted no.

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