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

I thank the member for his question. The member who asked the question has been in contact with me and my office about this individual school, and what he knows from that contact is that the guidelines of the Building the Education Revolution Program did not provide, have never provided, for schools that have transient populations. Similar criteria have been used in the past for federal government capital programs because obviously the aim here, when we are talking about schools with transient populations like hospital schools, is that children go to them for a very limited period of time but their primary enrolment is in another school, their home school in their own community, and so their enrolment is counting towards the Building the Education Revolution allocations in their home school.

The member who asked the question would also be aware that I have been working with him, I thought, to discuss the matters with the New South Wales government, because I understand that there are transient schools that have needs. As we know, the Building the Education Revolution guidelines require state governments to keep up their same level of capital investment. So of course it is possible for the school that he seeks to be advantaged—and I can understand as a local member he is advocating for his schools; that is proper—to benefit through a state government program, and we have been working with him on that.

On the question of school closures, can I refer the member and the House to the Building the Education Revolution guidelines, which have always been crystal clear on this component. I will quote them to the House:

Where two or more schools have a planned amalgamation over the next three years into either a new school site or an expansion of one of the existing schools, then the indicative funding allocation for the schools to be emerged may be combined to be used for capital or refurbishment in the new school.

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