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

As a result, the school community worked to deliver a project which is delivering an extended assembly hall with an integrated canteen which is big enough for the whole school community. The entrance to the school has been remodelled and redesigned so that it is now near this assembly area. This means that kids from the local Defence Force base can come into school without having to go near the area where the cars are—obviously safer. As a result of this development, the old canteen, which was in the middle of the play area used by the early education facility has been demolished. A demountable which was on a strip of under-used land close to the boundary with the Defence Force base has been removed and another school will benefit from that demountable. The five new classrooms have been placed there. As a result of this design, there is an additional space in the assembly hall, the new canteen, five new classrooms and additional play areas to that which were in the original design of the school.

In addition, the old Cyclone fencing has been removed and replaced with powder coated pool fencing. There is a feature timber wall on one side of the school as a barrier between them and local industrial projects which are on the other side. All fittings and furniture have been included like interactive white boards in each of the classrooms, desks, chairs, industrial fridges, bain-maries, and the list goes on. The principal says that he is delighted with the project and so is the local P&C.

The member for Solomon is very familiar with this school and would be able to give interested members further details of this Building the Education Revolution project. The member for Solomon also advises me that he has some passing familiarity with the local McDonald’s to which it has been compared. What he says is that the local McDonald’s is small, predominantly designed to facilitate drive-through on two sides—that is, it is big in car park, big in drive-through but a relatively small building. Anybody requiring further details of that may also choose to ask the member for Solomon.

All of this adds up to the fact that in dealing with the Building the Education Revolution I want to get value for money. The government wants to get value for money. In order to do that, each and every day we need to deal with the facts. I have advised the House of the facts about Larrakeyah Primary School as explained to me by the school principal.

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