Daryl Melham (Banks, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Over the winter recess in the same way as my colleagues I have regularly attended ceremonies to mark the opening of the capital and improvement works funded under the government's Building the Education Revolution program. At every opening the teachers, support staff, parents and students could not have been more supportive or appreciative of the federal government's investment in education. The government's record investment in Australian skills has delivered modern facilities to schools across the nation. The formula used has been used in every single one of the 150 electorates across the nation, irrespective of whether they are Labor, Liberal, Independent or National. In the Banks electorate a total of $85,236,722 has been expended through the three key programs: Primary Schools for the 21st Century, National School Pride Program, and Science and Language Centres for 21st Century Secondary Schools. Padstow TAFE received $406,446 under the Better TAFE Facilities program.

Locally I have seen and experienced the difference that the new and upgraded classrooms have made to our schools, in addition to the COLAs—covered outdoor learning areas—the multipurpose halls, the walkways, the new toilets and sewerage systems, the new libraries, the playground upgrades and all the other facilities in our schools. I know the opposition continues to bleat in sound bites over expenditure on these projects. I say this to those on the other side: you could never have had the vision to complete such a scheme. A nation-building enterprise such as this had some problems, but to put this into perspective, of the 23,670 construction projects, there were 332 complaints, of which 326 have now been resolved. I know that the various facilities will be used by the school and by the broader community. The government's objectives in this were to provide schools with the largest capital input ever experienced as well is to provide support for local businesses. This program ensured that jobs were maintained and created in a very difficult financial situation.

I have heard from not only tradesman but architects, surveyors, landscapers and so many others who were able to gain employment or remain employed because of this initiative. When you multiply that by the over 23,000 school based projects across the nation you can see why we fared so well during the global financial crisis and why we are the envy of economies around the world.

I would like to recognise the commitment of all school communities in my electorate who helped make these developments possible. Without the cooperation of principals, teachers, support staff, families and local workers these schools would not have had the 21st century facilities they so richly deserve and now enjoy.

I do not apologise for the fact that I am a Keynesian. Indeed, because this money that was injected into the community, when you look at the multiplier effect—which if you read the economic textbooks is about four times what you spend—we have a situation where in the life of this government we have had 750,000 jobs created since the government was elected and about 350,000 of those jobs were created during the global financial crisis. Instead of tax cuts what we have had through the schools programs and indeed through the social housing programs is infrastructure that will, in effect, re-infuse the local communities where that work was done. That is what I have experienced as I have gone around my electorate. There are schools like East Hills Girls High School, now in the member for Hughes's electorate and formerly in my electorate before the last election. That school will get over $10 million to, in effect, reinvigorate the school. Just last week under another program, which was funded by the former state government, we opened a large gymnasium. The member for Hughes was there and he saw how that school had been reinvigorated. It was a school built in the fifties and sixties and was, like so many in my electorate, badly in need of funds. It took a global financial crisis for the government to spend the sort of money that it spent. Under the Building the Education Revolution it spent $16.2 billion. In my opinion it was money well spent. Of course some builders ripped us off. Of course some builders did well out of it. Who has not had a bad experience with a builder? But the positives far outweigh the negatives. As I said when we were opening one presentation, 97 per cent is not a bad result. I would not mind getting that at school. (Time expired)