Steve Fielding (Victoria, Family First Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Carr, Minister representing the Minister for Education. Given the results from the Australian Early Development Index, which compared how children were faring in different communities across the country, found that Shepparton schoolchildren were at the greatest risk of having trouble at school, what is the government doing to fix this alarming finding and to make sure that Shepparton schoolchildren get the same opportunities as children in the rest of the country?

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

I thank the senator for his question. The government will be investing $63.7 billion in education for the period of 2009-12. I understand that is a figure that Senator Joyce is targeting for his savings adventure. The $63.7 billion that this government is spending compares with the $33 billion that the Liberals invested between 2005 and 2008. So this government is doubling the amount of money we are spending on school education in this country.

The students in Shepparton will see their share of that money, by which they will see huge benefits for every student in every school in Shepparton. It is the Liberal Party that wants to take that money away from them. It is the Liberal Party that is saying that those facilities that this government is building in Shepparton should be stripped from those students. It is the Liberal Party that is saying that the people of Shepparton are not entitled to a fair go when it comes to education. So, Senator Fielding, I trust you will ask the Liberal Party how much money they are taking out of schools in the electorate of Shepparton, from the people of Shepparton, from one of the most disadvantaged communities in the state of Victoria.

Steve Fielding (Victoria, Family First Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Drawing attention to the four public schools in the Shepparton region—Wanganui Park Secondary College, Mooroopna Secondary College, McGuire College and Shepparton High School—and given that they are substantially below the Australian school national average, how much exactly will be going to those schools over those years? (Time expired)

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

I will seek advice from the education department officials as to precisely the amounts of money that have been spent in those specific schools from the Commonwealth appropriations. But again I would ask the Liberal Party: can you please tell the parents of students at those schools how much money you are going to take off them, what services you are going to take away from them, what levels of disadvantage you are prepared to accept as a legitimate part of the way this country operates. Because that is the view that Senator Joyce is trying to put to the people of this country—that education can be cut to finance your crazy, wide-eyed schemes.