Michael Danby (Melbourne Ports, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I recently had the pleasure of representing the Hon. Julia Gillard MP, Minister for Education, at the opening of a capital grants project at Adass Israel School on 28 April in my electorate of Melbourne Ports. The school plans to use this grant and other grants that it has received for a number of projects, including classrooms, a staffroom, an arts room, administration areas and associated areas. Three Australian government grants totalling $650,000 have been received under the capital grants program.

While I was visiting the opening of this project, the teachers, students and parents shared their delight at the news that the school will be receiving $2 million in funding as part of the Primary Schools for the 21st Century component of the program of education spending that the government has announced. This money will go towards two projects at that school: a new multipurpose hall worth $1½ million; and half a million dollars for much-needed classrooms on the campus. The number of students at that school is rapidly expanding because of their demographic.

When they were in office those opposite, in my view, lacked a sense of national direction in relation to education. For years Australia was left with an infrastructure deficit so big and wide reaching that many schools right around this country had to cope with temporary classrooms and rundown facilities. Something else those opposite are saying, which I disagree with, is that the future for the next generation, for our children, will not be as good as it has been for us. This is defeatist talk. If the coalition’s starting point for the recovery of their political fortunes is there, then they are already beaten.

This government believes that the future can and will be better for our children, not just measured by material things but by the quality of their lives and the reach of their aspirations. That is why the $14.7 million set aside in the program of education spending is of fundamental importance for Labor’s nation-building plan and jobs plan. The education funding is divided, as we all know, into a number of subprograms which have been rolled out. Programs are still in their early stages but every school in my electorate has got something out of this extensive program, including from the National School Pride Program, under which all 43 schools in the electorate have shared in $6 million, with the exact size of the allocation depending on the size of the school. The funding will be spent on smaller school improvement projects. For instance, St Columba’s Catholic Primary School is laying down a new synthetic surface for its grounds and playing courts, while at Port Melbourne Primary School they are constructing a new hard-court teaching space.

Additionally, most primary schools in my electorate have been provided funds under the much larger Primary Schools for the 21st Century program. So far, 18 local schools have benefited from nearly $36 million of funding. Over the coming weeks and months, these schools will begin constructing new major infrastructure such as libraries and multipurpose and outdoor learning centres. (Time expired)