Anne McEwen (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Of course, Senator Bernardi would not want investment in alternative energies, would he? That is because he is a climate change sceptic. He is one of the many over there—he is one of the troglodytes. He does not believe in this sort of stuff. He does not believe in any other type of energy; he just wants to live in his cave in the dark burning his coal, as he has done.

Another recent announcement that I was unable to talk about last night was the roll out of fibre-to-the-premises network across the entire town of Willunga—another place that South Australian senators will be very familiar with. Willunga has struggled to get access to broadband technology of a quality that will satisfy the education, household and business needs in that important and growing region of South Australia. It was a very welcome announcement and I am very pleased that the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Conroy, agreed that that regional area would benefit from the rollout of infrastructure. It is essential to the development of the region.

I would like to take the opportunity to put this on the record, if I could go back to schools for a minute. It is worth while noting the financial commitment that has been made to schools as a result of Building the Education Revolution and the economic stimulus package. I want to highlight three programs: National School Pride, which has provided funding of $102 million to 788 schools; Primary Schools for the 21st Century, which has provided $1.19 billion to 693 schools; and Science and Language Centres for 21st Century Secondary Schools, which has provided nearly $78 million to 61 schools. Those are South Australian figures. They are not small amounts of money. They are big projects. They are big important projects that South Australia needs and that the Rudd Labor government was pleased to deliver to them.