Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Small Business, the Service Economy and Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to talk about the decision of the Rudd Labor government to abolish, or not continue, the Investing in Our Schools Program. This is an important program that was instituted by the Howard government that, on the Gold Coast alone, saw an investment of some $8.4 million into local schools—a $1.2 billion program across Australia that has now been slashed by the Rudd Labor government. It is a great shame, because the Rudd Labor government does not have the wherewithal in the current circumstances to ensure continued investment in local schools.

With respect to schools on the Gold Coast I would like to talk directly to the P&Cs and the local school communities about the ways in which the Investing in Our Schools Program made a very material difference to the way that schools functioned and the kinds of facilities they had available to them. For example, Bellevue Park State School received a grant of $42,990 to upgrade junior school playground equipment. Benowa State High School received a grant of $49,541 for ICT improvements. Benowa State School received $150,000 under the Investing in Our Schools Program for classroom refurbishment. Broadbeach State School received $150,000 for a hall refurbishment. Surfers Paradise State School received $150,000 for air conditioning. Benowa State High School received a further $100,000 for reverse cycle air conditioning. And in schools like Nerang, which are located in more socioeconomically disadvantaged parts of my electorate, we saw for example a grant of $24,000 to Nerang State School for library resources and a grant of $132,000 for school grounds improvements at Worongary State School.

So I say to all the P&C presidents, to the school principals, to the school communities around all of those schools in my electorate, and broadly across the Gold Coast and across Australia: this program has now been slashed by the Rudd Labor government. And at this point in time we are not seeing any further investment by the Rudd Labor government in this kind of program. There has been discussion that the Rudd Labor government intend to invest money in every school having computers. We discovered through the Senate estimates process that that will not actually see every student from years 9 to 12 having a computer, as was promised prior to the election. Rather, we now see a backflip on that position so that the Labor Party only say every student will have ‘access’ to a computer. So we see where there was one example given prior to the election—say anything, do anything to get elected—and now that they are in power the Labor government are walking away from that promise. They are walking away from school communities on the Gold Coast, walking away from students in years 9 to 12 and walking away from providing the kind of infrastructure support that school communities need and that school communities count on to ensure a first-class education for young students in the Gold Coast and more broadly across Australia.

The bittersweet element in all of this is that we may see a small trickle of money flow to some schools in my community. The Rudd Labor government has announced that there will be some 2,600-odd technical and vocational education blocks built within high schools. We are yet to see any detail in that respect. We are yet to see exactly how this money is going to be used. We are yet to see exactly how this money will make a difference to school communities and what kind of facilities and vocational education opportunities will be provided to young Gold Coast students. My concern is that, once we actually pierce through the spin of the Rudd Labor government, once we pierce through the puffery of the election campaign, we will see that, like the computers in schools promise, this simply will not stand up. And that is a great shame, because the people who are most adversely affected by this withdrawal of important community funding by the Rudd Labor government will be young Australians—young Australian students who rely on that kind of investment, young Australians students who have grown tired of the fact that state Labor governments have not carried their load when it comes to investing in state public schools. We have seen now over a number of years where state Labor governments have walked away from adequate funding, and that is why the Howard government instituted the $1.2 billion Investing in Our Schools Program. It is a shame that the Rudd Labor government will not continue the program. It is a shame this money will not be made available. But I promise to stand up for my local school communities. (Time expired)