Mark Arbib (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Government Service Delivery) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator McLucas for the question and also for the work she has undertaken particularly in Far North Queensland and the community of Cairns, where unemployment has reached 14 per cent. The work she has done to create jobs and support the local community should be commended. I am pleased to inform the Senate that, while parliament has been in recess, the builders, the contractors, the tradies and the subcontractors working on Building the Education Revolution projects have been hard at it. As senators would be aware, the program is valued at $16.2 billion—and I remind the Senate that coalition senators voted against it six times.

As at the end of December, only halfway through the school holidays, at the nation’s 8,000 primary schools over 5,000 projects were under construction. That is more than double the figure of only two months ago. What that means is that there are tradespeople on sites, wages getting paid, libraries being built, classrooms being built and science and language centres being built—and Tony Abbott, the member for Warringah, is complaining. Two months ago there were only 33 science and language centres underway, but we now have 503 science and language centres underway—and all the member for Warringah can do is complain. He complains that the government has kept Australia out of recession. He complains about vital school funding—which was so neglected by the Howard government—going directly to school communities. As I travel around the country talking to principals and school communities—(Time expired)