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

I thank the member for his question. We understand that there are many candidates for the job of shadow minister for education, and we have just found another one—and he may well be better at it. I say to the member that I am aware that there has been some publicity locally about the school that he refers to. When we look at that kind of comparison, frequently we find when people are talking about construction costs that we are not getting an apples-to-apples comparison. People would be aware that it is common to quote per metre costs to lock-up stage; whereas, of course, the per metre costs for Building the Education Revolution are for the fully fitted out facility—that is, the teacher walks in the door, turns on the lights, the students walk in behind him or her and everything they need to conduct the class is already there in the facility and the fittings are there.

Obviously, if the member wishes me to look at the example, I will. But I say to the member opposite that there is an essential hypocrisy at the centre of this that really needs to have a light shined on it. I hope he says to the P&C at that school: ‘If I’d had my way, you wouldn’t have got one dollar of this expenditure. We wouldn’t be debating what it is that your school is getting because you would not have got one dollar of this expenditure.’ And I hope he says to the workers on that construction site—

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