Ross Vasta (Bonner, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Education, Science and Training. Would the minister inform the House how schools in my electorate and in Queensland generally are benefiting from the Investing in Our Schools program? How are the state governments performing in meeting the needs of schools that they own and manage?

Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women's Issues) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Bonner for his question and I acknowledge his support for the $1 billion Investing in Our Schools program. Let me share with the House just a couple of stories that we have been told by Queensland government schools about what state they are in. There is a Queensland government school that has damaged walls and has been waiting to repair those walls because they contain asbestos. There is asbestos in the walls at this Queensland government school. That has had to turn to the federal government to ensure that it could get support to fund the repair of those walls. How long would that school have had to continue to wait before the Queensland government stepped in and took responsibility? We will never know.

There is a state government school in Queensland where the basketball court surface is considered so dangerous that it has been classed as out of bounds for all students. How long would that state government school have had to wait for the Beattie government to step in and repair that basketball court so that students could use it? But, again, they have turned to the federal government for support under the Investing in Our Schools program.

So, as the Beattie government abandons the basic needs in Queensland government schools, the Australian government has already provided $57 million to over 800 Queensland state government schools. The member for Bonner will be pleased to know that in his electorate some $1.6 million has been provided, in the electorate of Leichhardt, some $2.3 million. The member for Capricornia would be relieved to know that $2.6 million has been provided for her electorate by the Australian government. And the member for Lilley, welcome back! In his electorate some $1.7 million was provided, in the member for Griffith’s electorate, $1.6 million.

We have 2,000 more applications from Queensland government schools for the federal government to provide basic infrastructure funding. So here we have the federal government stepping in to do the clean-up work left by the Queensland state government, and Mr Beattie is just pushing onto the federal government the asbestos problems in state government schools. It is time that Queenslanders sent a message to the Beattie government. It is time that the state government supported Queensland government schools.