Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and Minister for Social Inclusion. Will the Deputy Prime Minister update the House on recent public commentary about the Building the Education Revolution program?

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

I thank the member for Fremantle for her question. I know that she supports the improvements in her local schools. She has asked me about recent commentary about the Building the Education Revolution program. It is very simple to summarise: parents, teachers and students love it and the opposition hate the Building the Education Revolution program. Unbelievably, on Lateline the shadow minister for finance, Senator Barnaby Joyce, when talking about our Nation Building Economic Stimulus Plan, of which Building the Education Revolution is a major part, said:

What did it deliver us? Give me one outcome that the Labor Party stimulus delivered us?

He went on to describe himself as an accountant not fascinated by numbers, so he is going to fit right in with an opposition led by an erratic and volatile man not interested in economics. When we come to the numbers that Barnaby Joyce has missed, they actually tell a story—the numbers about the growth in our economy which meant that this nation stayed out of recession; the numbers about the employment in our economy that show that we supported jobs and continue to support jobs at a crucial time. Senator Barnaby Joyce must have missed the following numbers under the Building the Education Revolution program: 24,009 infrastructure projects are due in our schools, including 10,656 projects in 7,961 primary schools under the Primary Schools for the 21st Century program.

Senator Barnaby Joyce’s crime is not just ignoring these numbers—if he was just ignoring these numbers then he would be foolish; of course, it is more than that. On Lateline when he was asked about how the opposition is going to finance its climate change con job, he said:

… look at the money squandered on their school halls.

Senator Barnaby Joyce, confirming proof positive that in order to finance the climate change con job put together by the climate change sceptic who now leads the opposition, the target for their savings will be stopping money being delivered to schools under the Building the Education Revolution program. I think that the opposition need to think about the reaction of school communities to being told that the climate change con job is going to be financed by their local school having money due to it ripped out. I can see some very pale faces on the backbench of the opposition now as they think about explaining that to their local school communities.

How would they explain it? How would they explain it to people like Peter Shaw, who is the principal of St Mary’s College, who said about the Building the Education Revolution: ‘This building program will increase the opportunities for our students to gain skills for local employment and increase their ability to access a career of choice’—getting skills for life and work, something that could be stopped in order to finance the climate change con job! What would they say to Rob Wannon, the chairman of the council of the Knox Grammar School, who said: ‘As one of the aims of the scheme is to stimulate the economy through employment, you would be happy to know that our project has already led to the employment of over 20 businesses involved in the design of the new facilities and will shortly result in the employment of over 100 construction personnel.’

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

How much does Knox get?

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

I thank the shadow Treasurer for confirming his opposition to expenditure on the Knox school. Maybe he would like to explain to the 100 workers who are being supported by that project why he does not think they deserve a job and why he does not think their families deserve to have a breadwinner in their family. It is quite clear from the reaction of the opposition that they value so little expenditure on schools that it is the obvious target for ripping out money to finance their climate change con job. That is the cost to Australian families and Australian school students.