Transcript
Round One of the $12.4billion Primary Schools for the 21St Century announced - Victoria
Burwood Heights Primary School
4 May 2009
The Hon Julia Gillard MP: We’re here today for an important
announcement about the Building the Education Revolution program.
The Federal Government is working in partnership with state
governments around the country, including here in Victoria, and with
the Catholic and independent school sectors, to deliver new projects
to schools right around the nation.
The biggest of those school building projects is in primary schools, and
of course we’re standing in a primary school today. The Building the
Education Revolution program is a $14.7 billion investment in schools right
around the nation.
Today I’m here to announce, with my Victorian colleagues, the first 20
per cent of projects in Victorian schools. 361 primary schools around the
state, including this school, will benefit from $686 million of new
resources. This money is being made available to construct multipurpose
halls, libraries and to replace classrooms. Here, in this school, it will
construct a multipurpose hall.
Of course, this is part of the Rudd Government’s Nation Building and Jobs
Plan, one of our responses to the global recession, to keep supporting
Australian jobs now. As the global recession hits this country, we’ve always
said it would hit Australian jobs, and in those circumstances, we wanted to
do everything we could to cushion the full impact on Australians. Part of
cushioning that impact is to stimulate our economy and to support jobs right
around the nation. There’s no better way of supporting jobs than investing
in the vital infrastructure we need for the future, and there’s no better
place to put vital infrastructure than where we educate the next generation
of young Australians.