Arch Bevis (Brisbane, 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 rollout of computers to schools and any rifts associated with the continued rollout of computers to our schools?

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

I thank the member for Brisbane for his question and I know about his lifetime commitment to education. As a man with a lifetime commitment to education, he and members on this side of the House recognise that for school students to get the education they need in the 21st century it is vital that they have access to the learning tool of the 21st century.

Joanna Gash (Gilmore, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Where are they?

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

I am very glad that the member for Gilmore is so interested in where these computers are. Just listen. If the member for Gilmore just tried listening—we know they always caterwaul about education—why she is probably caterwauling now is she wants to stop me saying clearly what we inherited when we came into office. The first thing we did under the computers in schools program was we audited how many computers there were for students in years 9 to 12, counting as a computer something four years old or less. There were 210,000 of them. There were some schools that did not have any. There were some schools that had a ratio of 1:8. Faced with these statistics, what had the Howard government done? It had obviously viewed this as satisfactory.

Joanna Gash (Gilmore, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You made a promise.

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

The member for Gilmore and all the members opposite have sat in their seats looking at this scene and deciding it was satisfactory. The hunt is still on for someone over there who will finally stand up for their electorate, because we did not believe it was satisfactory that there were only 210,000 computers, we did not believe it was satisfactory that there were some schools without any and we did not believe it was satisfactory that there were some schools with a 1:8 ratio. The member for Gilmore clearly did. She was a core supporter of the Howard government and did nothing to rectify this situation. We have acted, unlike those opposite. Today I am pleased to report to the House—on 31 May these figures are accurate—

Joanna Gash (Gilmore, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You made a promise and you failed.

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

The member for Gilmore might like to think about them—as of 31 May, we had funded 696,000 computers and installed 297,000. That is, we have installed more computers than were available to kids when the Howard government was in office. In 2½ years we have installed more computers than were available to students after 12 long years of the Howard government.

Joanna Gash (Gilmore, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mrs Gash interjecting

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

The member for Gilmore can scream and shout all she likes, but she is clearly exposed as someone who did not care about this track record of neglect. She should be celebrating the fact that 297,000 computers have been installed, more than were available when the Howard government was in office—a shameful track record of neglect.

The hunt remains for a member over there who is prepared to stand up for their electorate after the budget cuts announced following the three-ring circus, the pass the parcel—the hospital pass—that the Leader of the Opposition and the shadow Treasurer engaged in with the shadow finance minister. Let us just think about the dimensions of these cuts. Trades training centres: gone, including ones that schools were promised last November. We know of course that, in addition to trades training centres being gone, quality teaching money would be gone, money that is bringing the best and brightest graduates into teaching, money that is funding the best teachers to go to the classrooms that need them the most—gone, as a result of the policies of the Leader of the Opposition.

But, obviously, today what would also be gone is the continuation of the computers in schools program. That means 120,000 kids would miss out on a computer. And then, beyond the allocation of these computers, the program would not be continued in a way that would support kids to have access to computers. So it would be back to the days that we had under the Howard government, where kids in the class scrabbled to get to the only computer, back to the days where they did not care that our nation was not ready for the 21st century in schools—back to those days, because they did not care in office at all about Australian education. Let us listen to the words of people who do care about Australian education—and I suggest members opposite might contemplate these. I received an email from a parent, Kate Swadling, who said:

I am writing to express my support of the great work you are doing in Public Education. My son was one of the lucky students to receive a laptop at the end of last year.

As a boy with handwriting difficulties this has made an enormous difference to his ability to work well in class and follow through at home. As a very low income family we would not have been able to afford to purchase such an item and so THANK YOU!

The opposition do not care about that, and there would be no more stories like that if they were elected. Kids like that would miss out as a result of their cutbacks. Let us listen to the words of students themselves. Blake Osmond and Elizabeth Kuskovska, year 9 students from the Illawarra Sports High School Student Representative Council, wrote:

Our Year 9 students received their state of the art … Laptops from the Federal Government. We are writing to thank you on behalf of our students for the investment in us, our school and inevitably our Nation’s future.

It seems remarkable to me that students in year 9 can understand how important this investment is to the nation’s future but the Leader of the Opposition does not understand, does not care and would stop kids like these ones getting the computers they need.