Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Feeney for the question. This is a program to build and refurbish facilities right across the country. It is a program that is benefiting 9½ thousand schools. It is a program that will enable a quarter of a million teachers to do their job more effectively. It is a program that will help our 3½ million primary and secondary students achieve their full potential. And what do we have arrayed against us on this issue? An opposition that is looking for a whinge-led recovery, and one media outlet. It may surprise some senators to learn that the media outlet in question is not the esteemed Victorian periodical Poodle Patter; it is the Australian newspaper, which this morning continued its campaign of trotting out someone, anyone, to denounce the program every day.

This morning it was a front-page rant about a school not getting what it wanted despite ‘agonising and calculated appeals to the opposition’. Everyone on this side understands what they mean about the agony. Perhaps those opposite can explain, however, what they mean by the calculation. The office of the Minister for Education confirms that the Victorian authorities have informed the Commonwealth that the school will indeed get the $3 million project that it proposed. School communities around the country have got right behind this program because they know that it is good for jobs and it is good for the kids. They should be demanding to know from the opposition why they voted against it.