Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Industry) Share this | Hansard source

Thirty students. Of course, we were told that there were going to be students coming from every quarter. Now we are told that by 2009 there might be 135 at Gladstone. The college at Darwin is not expected to grow beyond a paltry 100 students. When state school enrolments fall that low, state governments will usually close the schools down on the basis that they represent an inefficient use of taxpayers’ money. But, when it indulges in a cheap and nasty political stunt, what does this government do? It puts in another $100 million. The idea of deliberately setting up new training facilities with such poor economies of scale ought to be anathema to this entire parliament. But the financial considerations cannot be allowed to stand in the way of this Howard government’s election stunts.

Debate interrupted.