Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

We always welcome questions from the member for Sturt. What is interesting about question time today, though, is that, on the day the government announces the biggest addition to the workforce of doctors in Australia, there is not one question on health, not one question on doctors and not one question on specialists. In fact, since we announced our plans for a new National Health and Hospitals Network, we have had maybe two or three questions altogether, because they know that their record on health and hospitals is appalling and they know as well that they have no plan for the future on health and hospitals.

The member for Sturt asked about Building the Education Revolution. This government is proud of Building the Education Revolution. This government is proud of the fact that we have stepped in to make a difference right across the country for this economy at a time when economies around the world were going into recession, one by one. What we did was step up to the plate to make a difference.

What was the alternative script advocated by those opposite? The alternative script advocated by those opposite was to do nothing. They would have happily seen hundreds of thousands of working families go into unemployment. They would have liked to have seen tradies across the country with no work. They would have liked to have seen apprentices dismissed from their firms. That is the direct consequence of the policy put forward by those opposite.

The member for Sturt asked specifically about individual schools. As I and members on our side of the House have travelled around the nation, one P&C, one P&F, after the other has said: ‘Thank God the government has acted to help us with our school. Thank God that we have a government which wants to give us new libraries, new language centres, new science centres, new multipurpose halls and state-of-the-art libraries.’ In fact, many of the schools that I have visited have never had a purpose-built library in their history. That is about equipping our kids to have a decent education for the 21st century.

Those opposite have no interest in delivering the basics: no interest whatsoever in supporting our economy and protecting jobs, no interest in delivering the basics on schools, and no interest in delivering the basics on health and hospitals. They have one interest alone, and that is to score cheap and tawdry political points in question time. I would say to the Leader of the Opposition, who has not had the courage today to stand up and ask a single question on health—not a single question on hospitals—that it is about time he got real with the agenda and the challenges facing Australia for the future. We have seen none of it so far.

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