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

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister explain to the House the need for the Nation Building and Jobs Plan announced yesterday and its role in addressing the global recession?

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question because it goes to the heart of how this nation responds to a global financial crisis, which is becoming a global economic crisis and, in turn, a global employment crisis. As I have said to the House before and will say again, there are two strategic choices for the national leadership of Australia: either to take a concrete course of action to seek to reduce the impact of this global recession on Australians—who did not cause this crisis—or to simply sit on the fence and carp. Those represent the alternatives for the leadership of the nation. The Labor government has decided on a course of action. Those opposite have decided to remain firmly sitting on the fence carping because they have concluded that it is to their political advantage so to do.

In relation to the content of the package that we have put forward, the Deputy Prime Minister, the Minister for Education and I today went out and visited a school: St Gregory’s parish school in Queanbeyan. It is one of 7,400 primary schools in Australia—Catholic, independent and government—right across the country, where this government has resolved to invest, together with the secondary school program and maintenance programs, nearly $15 billion. When I was at St Gregory’s this morning, they outlined to me how they were currently in the business of building a new library resource centre. It is costing them $1½ million through the renovation of a building that has been there since the 1960s. They pointed out to me at that school that they have demountables in which the kids are still studying, and for a school of 600 kids they have actually no assembly hall—none whatsoever. When I spoke to the principal—

Opposition Member:

Opposition member interjecting—

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is a Catholic school.

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Those opposite just interjected something about state schools. It is a Catholic school. The principal said, ‘What we really need in this school is an assembly hall in order to bring the kids together.’ In the stinking hot days in which the kids went back to primary school last week, and in the depths of winter here in this part of Australia, it is pretty hard to bring the school together in a single place. So what that principal said to me—and I imagine he will resolve this with the Catholic education authority—is that he wants to see projects like that advanced within his school. It is a school of 600 in our neighbourhood, and I was out there this morning with the member for Eden-Monaro.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would suggest to those opposite that on behalf of each one of them right across the country—each one of the primary schools in each one of your electorates—what you have embarked upon today is to vote against the biggest building program in every primary school in the nation—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In the electorate of North Sydney; in the electorate of Curtin; in the electorate of Wentworth; throughout Adelaide; throughout Brisbane; throughout Queensland—in every state of the country you are voting no against what the schoolteachers, the P&Cs and the P&Fs of this nation are demanding. And you are doing so for one reason and one reason alone: rank political expediency. Because I suspect that—

Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Costello interjecting

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I notice that the member for Higgins up the back has a quiet chortle to himself. I think he knows what my reference is, as yon Higgins has again a hungry look when it comes to questions of Liberal Party leadership. There is always a backward glance to see what Higgins might be up to.

Can I just say this: when the Leader of the Opposition in effect said, in a statement today, that building school infrastructure was not the highest infrastructure priority of the nation—

Barry Haase (Kalgoorlie, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Roads and Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Haase interjecting

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ah! So he says that school infrastructure—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We have it confirmed from the Leader of the Opposition, the Leader of the Liberal Party, that building school infrastructure is not an infrastructure priority for the nation. That is what he said. On the question of hospitals, as they twist and turn and have to deal with every P&C and P&F in each of their electorates who comes and says, ‘Why are you voting against a building program for the primary schools in your electorate?’ what this Leader of the Opposition then seeks to deflect to is the necessary investment in hospitals. Following 12 years of Liberal government, they are talking to us about the priority of investment in public hospitals—after they gouged $1 billion out of public hospital expenditure. I have seen it all!

In our first year in office, at the meeting of the Council of Australian Governments in this building in December last year, what did we agree on? A $4.8 billion plan with the states and territories to reinvest in public hospitals, a $1.1 billion plan to invest in the future human resource needs of the health system, further investment when it comes to emergency services of $750 million and further investment when it comes to elective surgery of $600 million. We have done all these things in one year, and those opposite have the absolute audacity to stand here and challenge whether we regard public hospitals as an infrastructure priority. The truth is that in their 12 years in office what characterised those opposite was that no infrastructure whatsoever was a priority. You ripped and gouged at public hospitals, you failed to invest in our universities, you failed to invest in our TAFEs and now you refuse to invest in our primary schools. I say to those opposite that the contrast in terms of nation building is clear.

I also say to the Leader of the Opposition that his and the Liberal Party’s opposition to the biggest nation building and school modernisation plan for Australia demonstrates how out of touch they have become. The Liberal Party are out of touch with P&Cs, P&Fs and mums and dads seeking to have decent buildings for their kids in primary schools, out of touch with mums and dads struggling with paying back-to-school costs and out of touch with small business, who want the measures that we foreshadowed yesterday by way of the accelerated investment allowance. You are out of touch with the needs of tradies, carpenters and plumbers, who are desperately seeking new project work. You are out of touch with the real needs of Australians. Instead, his prescription is this: stand to one side and allow the Australian people, Australian tradies and mums and dads to face and endure the full brunt of this global economic recession without government stepping in to help. That is the alternative.

I say to the Leader of the Opposition and to the House that the challenge for the nation at a time of unprecedented global economic challenge is clear-cut: either you act and government intervenes to help stabilise financial markets, to help increase growth, to help support jobs and to help families deal with the consequences of this global recession, or you vacate the field, as recommended by the Liberal Party. The Liberal Party is out of touch with mums’ and dads’ basic needs right across country. This government will get on with the business of seeking to protect the Australian economy and families as much as is humanly possible from a global economic recession, which they did not cause and which free market fundamentalism has rammed in their direction.