Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am proud to rise to speak on the Higher Education Support Amendment (Maximum Payment Amounts and Other Measures) Bill 2012 and I commend the member for Shortland for her contribution to this important debate. The Gillard Labor government strongly believes in education's power to transform lives. It is in the Labor Party DNA, and most of the Labor Party people elected here understand and value the transformational power of education. This government, and the Rudd government before it, has a very strong track record that we can be very proud of when it comes to investing in education.

Since 2007 the federal Labor government has doubled funding to Australian schools compared to the Howard government. It is not esoteric support; it is practical support. We have doubled the funding compared to the Howard government and we have modernised facilities in nearly all of the 9,800 schools across the country—from the smallest communities right through to the big superschools, some of which are in my electorate.

The coalition's 3,000 flagpoles during their 12 years in office was commendable and noteworthy but I would rather look to our record of 3,000 libraries, not to mention all the halls, classrooms, computers et cetera which I will go through in some detail. We have 3,000 flagpoles on the one hand and 3,000 libraries on the other. That shows the difference between this party's commitment to education and the opposition's small-time politics. With the flagpoles, it is my understanding that local members were not even allowed to go along to the opening.

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