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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-02-28 Daily Xml
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SCHOOL FUNDING

Mr PISONI (Unley) (15:18): Can the Minister for Education and Children's Services advise what additional funding the state government will be providing to primary schools to replace the Investing in Our Schools program axed by the Rudd government? Last year alone, the previous Liberal government's Investing in Our Schools Initiative provided $7.5 million for South Australian primary schools in projects such as: $100,000 for air conditioning at St Agnes Primary School, in the seat of Newland; $69,657 for ICT computer and sports equipment at Seacliff Primary School, in the seat of Bright; $57,985 for ICT computer and shade sails at Roseworthy Primary School in the seat of Light; $100,000 for canteen and library resources at Nicholson Avenue Primary School in the seat of Giles; $75,770 for ICT computer and sportsfield related projects at Moana South in the seat of Kaurna; $100,000 for art rooms and school ground improvements at Oak Valley Aboriginal School, in the seat of Giles—

The SPEAKER: Order! I think the member for Unley has gone beyond what is necessary to explain the question.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! I was worried that you were going to go through all 47 electorates.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Minister for Education and Children's Services.

The Hon. J.D. LOMAX-SMITH (Adelaide—Minister for Education and Children's Services, Minister for Tourism, Minister for the City of Adelaide) (15:19): The member for Unley may have noticed that there was a federal election last year and the Howard government is no longer in office. Therefore, its policies are not the ones being enacted by the Rudd government.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. LOMAX-SMITH: And he may not have realised that one of the reasons the Rudd government was elected was that it made a point of looking towards investing in education in this country in a fair, equitable way—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The house will come to order. The Minister for Education.

The Hon. J.D. LOMAX-SMITH: Thank you, sir—and in a way that looked at needs across the community. If you look at the investment that will be made in computers in schools, the investment that will be made in further and higher education—

An honourable member interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. LOMAX-SMITH: —the investment that will be made in senior years and trade skills, and the investment that will be made in child care and early years (there will be a whole range of investments), it is a new government. It has a different agenda. One of the challenges, of course, for state governments (and this is something we suffered under enormously) is that the Howard government had a mass of small pilot studies. People would be employed, they would have programs and projects and be scattered willy-nilly around the state. And, guess what—after three years those pilots were not assessed, measured or audited, and they stopped. In fact, one of the challenges with federal funding is that you have to have continuity. You have to have strategic investment and, above all, federal investment has to enmesh with state investment, so that when we invest in the early years or in trade schools the money dovetails and produces more bang for the buck by being coherent and strategic.

The reality is that this government has invested big time in infrastructure in schools—$665 million has been invested in our schools during the last six years, and that has made a substantial difference to removing asbestos, producing more classrooms (because it reduced class sizes), and employing more teachers to fulfil that commitment. We have trained and invested in more early years teachers, and we have put in counsellors.

An honourable member interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. LOMAX-SMITH: We have supported the earlier years. We are building 20 children's centres; we are building ten trade schools that are just now opening; and we are building a whole range of schools with better facilities for better education. If the member for Unley has not noticed that investment, he has not been looking.

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