Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Our school modernisation program has invested some $16.2 billion across 23½ thousand projects in our country, Australia. This is the largest school modernisation program in our country's history. It was a large part of the reason that Australia was able to remain recession free during the global financial crisis—a feat unique among the major advanced economies. I shudder to think of what would have happened had Australia fallen into recession at the time of the global financial crisis and shudder to think of the hundreds of thousands of Australian households which would have been left without a breadwinner as I remember the challenges of the GFC and look carefully at developments in Greece and elsewhere in Europe as they bear down on the global economy, which includes Australia.

Part of our vision for the school modernisation program was to help build the education infrastructure we need for the 21st century and to ensure that we have school buildings and school facilities that are able to be part of our vision for an education revolution. The vision was to help build an Australia where we have the best-educated, best-trained and best-skilled workforce of any country in the world. More than 9½ thousand Australian schools have benefited from investment under the school modernisation program, and in recent times I have been speaking with many of my school principals about how the investment was used. In my own community some $88 million was invested across 124 projects. Forty-four of our schools now have brand-new facilities. There are 25 new libraries, 17 multipurpose facilities and many, many new or modernised classrooms. Bricks and mortar are, of course, merely the foundation. School principals tell me that the facilities are now being used to radically improve the way in which our children are educated. Watch and see how the interactive whiteboards are now being used in classrooms across the country on the back of the program. It is a genuinely rewarding experience.

I have seen the facilities at St Martin's Catholic Primary School in Carina, which is a terrific Catholic school in my community. The principal, Michael Kelleher, is thrilled with the school's new multipurpose facility, which they have called the Dominic Centre. For the first time they have a perfect venue for bringing the entire school community together—and this is a big school—for performances, for assemblies and for community meetings.

I have also seen the facilities at Seven Hills State School, which is terrific state school in my community. The principal there, Michelle Morrissey, has emphasised the significance of the new library. It is the cool place for the kids to be at lunchtime. They are now learning and enjoying the new learning environment. Whites Hill State College principal, Paul Robertson, has said that the new integrated learning centre—which now accommodates separate classrooms for music, for multimedia and for information technology—is a huge enhancement of his school community. Mayfield State School's principal, Ian Blacklock, has said that, despite the fact that performing arts and multimedia studies have featured strongly in the school's curriculum over the years, they now have a multipurpose facility and resource centre which is replete with an audiovisual system, motorised screen and digital projector and which can host around 350 people and provide a first-class venue for all the school's artistic productions. I saw recently at Cannon Hill State School, which is another great Queensland state school, the school's new resource centre. Again, the kids are now flocking to the place at lunchtime because it is cool to be in the library and to learn.

All of these cases are part of a good story—an unfolding narrative—not only in my community but also across the country. Coorparoo State School's principal, Keith Warwick, has the same sorts of things to say about their new library resource centre, new classrooms and new multipurpose facility. At St Lawrence's College, a leading Catholic secondary and primary college, I have seen the new modern library and dozens of new classrooms, all with state-of-the-art equipment and resources. At Bulimba State School there is a new multipurpose facility which is now dishing up a new generation of master chefs from the award-winning Stephanie Alexander designed kitchen. These new facilities are an architectural feat in themselves, having been built literally on the edge of a cliff face. There are fantastic views of the city of Brisbane, and it is therefore a fantastic fundraiser for the local P&C. The kids are learning to cook fresh fruit, to grow local veggies and to improve their nutritional skills and opportunities for the future.

The school modernisation program has been fantastic. I see it as part and parcel of the education revolution for Australia, part and parcel of what we are seeking to do with the national curriculum and with other national education reforms and part and parcel of creating the best-educated, best-trained and best-skilled workforce of any country in the world.

House adjourned at 17:00