James Bidgood (Dawson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education, the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and the Minister for Social Inclusion. Would the Deputy Prime Minister update the House on the progress of the Eatons Hill State School application for funding under Building the Education Revolution and inform the House of other schools in the electorate of Dickson that may be eligible for funding.

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

I thank the member for Dawson for his question. Once again, of course, it is a Labor member who takes a keen interest in the welfare of schools in the electorate of Dickson. The Labor Party yet again steps into the breach to make sure that those schools are properly represented in this place.

I know that the state of the application for funding of the Eatons Hill State School is a matter of extreme interest to this House—after all, we had three questions, three points of order and a member of parliament excluded over it yesterday—so I wanted to make sure that members around the parliament understood that this school, and schools right around the country, are eligible for funding under the Rudd Labor government’s Building the Education Revolution program. It is the single biggest school modernisation program in this nation’s history, covering 9,540 schools around the country, with a total funding injection of $14.7 billion to renew and rebuild our schools and to support jobs right around the country in these difficult days following the global financial crisis.

This program has been embraced by members of parliament who want to represent their electorates and by the Independent members of parliament who want to see improvements in their local schools. It has been embraced by education stakeholders, and I will quote just one. The President of the Australian Primary Principals Association, Leonie Trimper, described it as fantastic news:

This is a fantastic win-win for all Australians … a lasting investment in Australia’s future – our primary school students.

That is her endorsement of this program. Despite the fact that education stakeholders have endorsed it, that schools around the country have endorsed it and that decent, hardworking members of parliament in this place have endorsed it, we know that the Liberal Party and the member for Dickson are opposed to it. Apparently, their only interest in this program, as evidenced in this parliament, is making sure they get invited to the opening ceremony. They did not want to come into the parliament and vote for the program and they do not want to assist their local schools getting into the program. And, when a local school is assisted by someone else, then they want to criticise the provision of that assistance—the way the member for Dickson criticised the member for Petrie for helping out one of his local schools in this parliament yesterday.

Just to complete the picture, I say to the member for Dickson that, in standing in the way of the Building the Education Revolution program, he is not just standing in the way of new facilities at the Eatons Hill State School. For the edification of the member, let us be absolutely clear about what he is standing in the way of. He is standing in the way of new facilities at the 39 primary and K-12 schools in his electorate, who, in total, are eligible for $69.5 million of funding under the Primary Schools for the 21st Century program—and I table a list of those schools. He is standing in the way of 45 schools in his electorate who are eligible for up to $6.2 million in National School Pride Program funding—and I table a list of those schools. He is standing in the way of the fact that the eight secondary schools in his electorate are eligible to apply for either a science laboratory or a language centre—and I table a list of those eight schools that he has opposed these new facilities for and opposed giving any assistance to.

Just in case the member for Dickson is never able to return to the Eatons Hill State School—and I am betting there is some merit in me coming to that conclusion—and in case he never sees this facility, I table, for his edification and for the edification of the House, the foundation plan of the new facility the Eatons Hill State School has planned, the front elevation view of the new facility the Eatons Hill State School has planned and the site plan of the new facility the Eatons Hill State School has planned. And, just because I know that the 960-odd students at that school and their parents got such a shock yesterday that their local member of parliament would stand against funding for their school in this parliament, I will also table the diagrammatic electrical plan of the new facility for the Eatons Hill State School.