Patrick Gorman (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I love my local schools. My parents were both primary school teachers and, indeed, my dad was a school principal. I know that our schools spend every cent they get incredibly carefully. Ron Gorman told me that and David Gonski has told us all that. So I was pleased to support 19 schools with the Local Schools Community Fund. My heart particularly went out to the Cyril Jackson Senior Campus, who through their Keys4Life program help newly-arrived 17- and 18-year-old migrants to this country learn to drive. I'm very proud to support that. I'm very proud to support the Sir David Brand School with their sensory playground.

While 19 schools were supported, 13 schools missed out because this government deliberately designed a school funding program that was underfunded for the need in my community. Schools missed out on air conditioners, computers and play equipment. This program is designed to hurt school communities, because they don't get the funding they need. The National Party should say that this program doesn't work, because it disproportionately hurts regional communities.

The kids who play netball at the Noranda netball courts don't get a new netball court, because of this government's sports rorts. They said: 'No, you are not going to get any funding for that. We're going to give it to the Applecross Tennis Club instead.' This government needs to take Western Australia seriously, it needs to take our local schools seriously and it needs to apologise for its sports rorts.