Damian Hale (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to acknowledge the contribution of the member for Hinkler. It is with a great deal of pleasure that I rise to highlight some of the achievements of the Rudd government in the last two years. The Rudd government has already delivered a massive reform program in the areas of health, workplace relations, taxation, social policy and nation-building infrastructure. The Building the Education Revolution program is a major reform initiative that helped save Australia from recession. It continues to protect jobs and help families manage the impact of the global financial crisis. The BER is also a long-overdue investment in every school in Australia. There are 24,000 projects in 9,500 schools supporting students and teachers as well as small business people right across the nation. This side of the House is proud that the BER helped save Australia from the worst effects of the GFC while delivering modern facilities in our schools that will give our kids a better pathway to jobs.

As the Deputy Prime Minister said in her address to the National Press Club in February this year:

The Rudd Government is investing more than $62 billion in school education from 2009-2012, almost double what was invested under the previous Government.

But when it really comes to the crunch the Education Revolution is about more than record investments—it’s about improving the quality of what goes on inside the classroom.

We want to see the combination of great classroom instructors, led by professional school leaders, using modern educational facilities, teaching the right curriculum, offering the best means to improve outcomes across the nation and overcome the effects of educational disadvantage.

In my electorate of Solomon, everywhere I go I see the benefits of the Building the Education Revolution. The National School Pride Program delivered much-needed funding for school infrastructure projects and, importantly, has supported local jobs. The program has delivered much-needed funding to refurbish and renew existing infrastructure and build minor infrastructure in all schools. In my electorate alone, in round 1 $5.5 million was delivered and in round 2 $1.5 million was delivered. It is fantastic to see our local schools and the local community benefit from the government’s $16.2 billion investment in vital school infrastructure. The BER program benefits every part of the nation. The Territory was delivered $13.6 million to 121 schools in round 1 and a further $6.5 million to 64 schools in round 2.

I must say I am concerned about the approach the opposition are taking to this program. What are those opposite and the Country Liberals planning to do with education infrastructure reforms across the Northern Territory and the nation if they get into government? I think we all get a pretty good idea when we see the comments the opposition have made in the media recently.

When asked about the Building the Education Revolution, Senator Barnaby Joyce made these comments on the AM program earlier this year:

Reporter: Can I ask you on the BER, you say it is $16 billion worth of glorified garden sheds. Do you stand by that comment?

JOYCE: I think it is an absolute waste of money. You’re right on that one. Yep, on that one we agree.

Reporter: OK because some of those schools are receiving halls, toilets, libraries, fences, covered outdoor areas.

JOYCE: Vastly inflated price to what they should be paying and you and I and everybody listening to this program is borrowing the money to pay for it.

Reporter: Are these facilities not more important to schools across the country than, as you describe them, glorified garden sheds?

JOYCE: I don’t believe that they are actually adding to the capacity of students going there to be better at English or to be better at maths, or to learn a second language. They are merely a tokenistic gesture.

Senator Joyce, I have been around in my electorate and been speaking to principals. I have a funding information form that I have given out to principals and they are giving their stories back to me. For example, I have heard from Principal Peter Swan of the Malak Primary School, a public school in my electorate with some 280 students which had $2 million spent there. Their project was a redevelopment and expansion of the front office as well as an added community conference, meeting and learning centre. Nightcliff Builders were the local contractors that were given this job. On the comments about the infrastructure, the principal, Mr Swan, said:

More area to engage easier with the Parents. Space to include parents in the Learning Process such as Literacy and Numeracy programs.

That is a boon to all schools. I asked him if it was on time and on budget. He said, ‘Yes, everything is running to budget and to the same schedule at this stage.’ He went on to say:

Staff are excited with the changes especially the opportunity to be able to interact with the Parents.

Good value for money.

His final comment was:

Once in a lifetime opportunity for all schools to have much needed infrastructure put into place.

That was Mr Swan from the Malak Primary School, but it was right across the board. I spoke to some 20 principals and slowly, as they have filled these forms in and they have come back to me, they have given me an idea of how their programs have been running. I have also been inspecting them.

But there is real feeling within my community, after the comments that were made by the member for Sturt, who is the opposition spokesperson on education. He said in a doorstop recently:

The Round 3 part of the program which has not yet been rolled out should be suspended.

That was said by the member for Sturt, the shadow education minister. You can say some things down here and think you will get away with them, but these comments are picked up. In the electorate of Solomon, St Paul’s catholic school has a principal by the name of Kelly Smith—a young lady who is doing a fantastic job. The school has 265 kids and $2 million worth of funding. She was getting a 21st century library as well as a roof over the outdoor learning area. She said of her project:

Library—on budget, but have delays due to rain.

The outdoor learning area currently has not commenced. This project is being stalled currently. It is a round 3 project and her comments were quite alarming. She said:

There is some nervousness around the talk of possible funding being cut though. Our community is extremely appreciative of all funding received. Thank You.

There is a real worry for the people in my electorate that the round 3 funding will be cut.

I was asking the person who is standing against me, my opponent, to come out and tell us whether she is going to back the schools in my electorate or whether she is going to be part of a government, if elected, that will cut the funding to my schools. But, just in case anyone may have held out a little bit of hope that they would not get rid of it, just last week the Leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott, confirmed that he will cut funding to school building programs across the nation, putting thousands of local jobs at risk and leaving schools without new facilities promised to them. On the AM program the Leader of the Opposition confirmed his intentions when he was questioned as to whether the funding would remain the same. I quote from the transcript. The presenter said, ‘But the pot of money will be the same size?’ The Leader of the Opposition said, as only he can, ‘Well, look, um, ah, I’m not going to give you that absolute commitment.’ All those opposite need to go and tell the students, parents and teachers in their electorates which school projects the Leader of the Opposition has on his hit list. They have to go and tell these people which schools are not going to be funded, which superclinics are going to be cut and which social and affordable housing projects are going to be cut. They need to come clean.

The best one yet, though, is this one. It is Mr Abbot once again, and it is to do with health. On 18 March this year I listened to the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition debate hospital and health policy. During the debate I heard a statement by the Leader of the Opposition that was so alarming I just had to go back to the Hansard and double-check whether I had heard him correctly. Tony Abbott, Leader of the Opposition, said:

The Prime Minister comes into this parliament today, puts his hand on his heart and boasts about the opening of the new cancer centre in Darwin. I provided that money in 2007. It ought to be called the Tony Abbott Cancer Centre in Darwin.

Well, I am glad to say it is actually called the Alan Walker Cancer Care Centre in Darwin. Alan, a well-respected Territorian, was a physician for over 30 years in Darwin. Fair dinkum: ‘the Tony Abbott Cancer Centre in Darwin’. Is he kidding himself? I will reiterate what the Prime Minister said in reply to this outlandish claim:

On the way through, he made an extraordinary claim about the cancer centre up there in Darwin. He said it should be called the Tony Abbott Cancer Centre. Did I hear that correctly? The minister for Health and Ageing reminds me that in fact I got it wrong. I said earlier today that they had promised it prior to the last election. I got it wrong; they promised it prior to the last two elections. Pardon me for understating their level of commitment. They were so committed that they committed to it twice! As of when we went to the election at the end of last year, did we see a brick or any mortar? Did we see any evidence of anything on the ground? No, we did not.

(Time expired)

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