Mike Symon (Deakin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations and Social Inclusion. Will the minister please inform the House of the government’s progress in delivering its education revolution and how it compares to the legacy of previous governments? Is the minister aware of any risks to Australia’s education system?

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

Of course the government are committed to an education revolution and we are doing that because we want every child in this country to have a world-class education. I know the members of the opposition are in a sour mood today, because last night they had their big shindig—listening to Memories, The Carnival is Over and Yesterday while having glasses of red wine—and this morning they have woken up a little sore in the head and with a sour taste in their mouths, but if they could just try and concentrate for one moment. While they are living in the past, we are committed to making sure that the children of this country get a first-class education in the future. We are committed to overcoming the neglect of more than a decade of the former government—six years of it under the personal administration of the Leader of the Opposition and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition. For a reason best known to themselves, they are all pretending to be characters from Fawlty Towers today. They picked the wrong show; it should have been Seinfelda show about nothing! They all would have fitted into that because they did nothing in government.

Let me tell you, Mr Speaker: the Howard government released 24 reports on teaching and 76 on school education and it did nothing of substance to make a difference to the quality of education in Australian schools. The Rudd Labor government are getting on with the job of investing in Australian education—our $1.2 billion digital education revolution, our $2.5 billion investment in trades training centres in schools, our $577 million investment in literacy and numeracy, our $534 million investment in early childhood education and our $500 million we have already delivered to Australian universities to help them renew their ageing capital stock because they were bearing the burden of a decade of neglect, six years of it under the personal watch of the Leader of the Opposition and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition.

But we want to do more and, in doing more, we have created the Education Investment Fund, an $11 billion fund to renew the capital stock of our universities and our vocational education and training sector. I am asked about the risks to this new fund. The risk to this new fund is the smash-and-grab raid that the Liberal Party has engaged in on the surplus. In pursuit of luxury cars, they are putting at risk our ability to invest in our educational institutions, particularly vocational and higher education institutions.

Wilson Tuckey (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Tuckey interjecting

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

I hear the member for O’Connor yelling out, and I can inform the member for O’Connor that this fund, in operation, would be able to benefit the University of Western Australia, which has a campus in Albany in his electorate. It would be able to benefit the Curtin University of Technology campus in Geraldton. Presumably, he does not want to see these campuses benefit and that is why he is supporting the smash-and-grab raid on the surplus.

Tony Smith (Casey, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thought it was all going to public transport.

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

I hear the shadow minister for education also calling out. He has a campus of Swinburne University and TAFE at Lilydale in his electorate. The smash-and-grab raid his political party is engaging in on the surplus—

Tony Smith (Casey, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Anthony Smith interjecting

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

That was the interjection you made before. The Education Investment Fund, you might not have noticed, is an $11 billion investment in education.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Families, Community Services, Indigenous Affairs and the Voluntary Sector) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, on a point of order regarding standing order 92: the Deputy Prime Minister has already exceeded her own four-minute rule. I ask you to direct her to conclude her answer.

Roger Price (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, on the point of order: the opposition have previously tried to apply standing order 76, which does not apply. Standing order 92 does not apply to question time.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! There is no point of order and the Deputy Prime Minister has the call.

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

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. I am pleased to see that, in opposition, the member for Warringah has finally found a copy of the standing orders—something he neglected for all those years in government. He never had one before, so something has improved in his life during the last few months. We want to see investments in universities—

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister Assisting the Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, on a point of order: standing order 104 does apply to questions—that they should be relevant. The question of whether the member for Warringah has a set of standing orders is hardly relevant to the answer of this question.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Deputy Prime Minister has the call. She will respond to the question.

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

Thank you very much. Now they are calling each other irrelevant. That is amazing. We want to invest in universities and vocational education and training around this country. The risk to that is the Liberal Party’s smash-and-grab raid on the surplus. I say to the Liberal Party: if they are going to continue on this smash-and-grab raid, they should have the decency to ring every vice chancellor and every TAFE director to explain to them why they do not believe their campuses are worth investing in. That is what they are putting at risk by their conduct.