Mr LATHAM (2:06 PM) —My question is to the Prime Minister. Why is the government spending $140 million on the National Office for the Information Economy when this money could be used to implement Labor's Read Aloud program for the benefit of our infant children? Why has the government given a higher priority to wasteful bureaucracy than to early childhood development and building literacy amongst the next generation of young Australians?

Mr HOWARD (Prime Minister) —I have several answers to that. The first answer is that $36 billion would pay for a lot of reading aloud. The second answer is that the question asked by the Leader of the Opposition proceeds upon the erroneous basis that there are, in fact, no programs already in place addressing the challenges of early childhood. Almost four years ago I announced, along with the then Minister for Family and Community Services, Senator Newman, a program of several hundred million dollars which was designed to strengthen families and communities—phrases that I know the Leader of the Opposition would want to identify himself with. Many of those programs involved the challenges of early childhood. They also involved the provision of additional support in areas where traditional methods of child care were not readily available, such as isolated regional and remote communities—areas of Australia that are persistently ignored and rejected by the Australian Labor Party.

The Leader of the Opposition asked me about the office of information technology. Perhaps that is not the correct name but I think we are talking about the same thing. I would have thought that support for that branch of the Australian economy, which is one of the fastest growing, is of enormous long-term benefit. In the circumstances, I would have thought that criticism made by the Leader of the Opposition in relation to something that is very relevant to the long-term growth and strength of the Australian economy is something that ought to be supported rather than opposed.