Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This week the government is pushing their agenda of $65 billion worth of tax cuts to big business instead of investing vital funds into education and health care. This government has its priorities all wrong. As a former teacher and principal, I understand, personally and professionally, the importance of properly funding our schools in a needs-based, sector-blind manner to ensure that our kids have access to the best quality education so that all schools get to the student resource standard. However, this Prime Minister's cuts to education are ruthless and demonstrate just how out of touch this government is.

I know: I visited Iramoo Primary School, sat with the principal, Mrs Findlay, and looked at that school's performance data across a five-year period. They are doing amazing things at that school. It's a school of 800 students in a very low-socioeconomic area in my electorate, and everybody's getting the care and attention they need and they are making great learning progress. But, over the next two years, nearly $17 million of funding is not going to appear in the schools in the electorate of Lalor. Of our 57 schools that are state schools, every single one will be disadvantaged.

It's not just about that; it's also about population growth in Victoria. The Victorian population is predicted to reach 6.26 million by the end of June 2018 with an average growth rate of 1.79 per cent over the last seven years. That population density is extraordinary and rising every day. Locally, in the electorate of Lalor, the City of Wyndham is one of the fastest growing areas in the country. Over 80 babies are born each week to a mother in Wyndham, and our population has surpassed 250,000 people—that means we are building schools at a rate of knots. I am proud that the Victorian state Labor government is building those schools while maintaining our local schools.

The Victorian Labor government is also making a commitment to our local hospital with an $80 million investment in the Mercy Hospital set to open soon. The problem is that, while the Victorian Labor government is busy spending billions on infrastructure, the federal LNP government is cutting costs to our schools and hospitals. It seems they have little care for the ordinary people I represent in this place. They care little about our health and even less about our education. This Prime Minister is absolutely out of touch when it comes to providing for working-class people.