Mr ANTHONY SMITH (3:05 PM) —My question is addressed to the Minister for Education, Science and Training. Would the minister inform the House of the reaction to yesterday's announcement of record funding for Australian schools? How has the initiative to ensure that every school has a flagpole and flies the flag every day been received? Is the minister aware of any alternative views?

Honourable members interjecting—

Dr NELSON (Minister for Education, Science and Training) —I thank the member for Casey for his question, which I found difficult to hear because of the laughter about flags from the Labor Party. Yesterday the Australian government announced that, over the next four years, $31.3 billion of taxpayers' hard-earned money will be invested in school education. That is a record investment in schooling. But, for the first time, the Australian government is requiring that certain conditions are met in national standards; accountability to parents; reporting information; clear reports back to parents in plain language about the progress of our children; making sure that values are embedded in education in government and non-government schools; making sure that every school has a well-developed safety program for schooling; and, amongst many other things, making sure that every school in this country that receives money from the Australian government has a functioning flagpole and flies the Australian flag.

Backbenchers achieve an enormous amount in this parliament, particularly on this side. The member for Casey, halfway through 2002, came to me and said, `We have a problem with some of the schools in my electorate. Some of the schools I've been to don't have a flagpole.' So having raised it at a civics and democracy conference, I then wrote to every state minister for education in this country and suggested that it was important that every government school have a functioning flagpole and, if they did not have one, then the Australian government would be prepared to provide one financially. In fact, I understand that Croydon Public School in the electorate of Casey was the first school in Australia to benefit from this program, which provides up to $1,500 to get a flagpole in an Australian school. I have been asked about the reaction to this announcement yesterday. There is a lot, but I will just walk the House through some of it. In the Australian newspaper this morning it says:

Philip is an 11-year-old student at Swanbourne Primary School in the electorate of Curtin, I think. Labor members ought to hear what 11-year-old children have to say. He said:

His principal, Nola Holt, said:

Unfortunately, not all of the commentary was as reflective of mainstream society views as that. For example, when I opened the Herald Sun this morning it said:

Then I found in the West Australian newspaper that State School Teachers Union president Mike Keely said that Mr Howard and education minister Brendan Nelson had taken tokenism to the extreme. That is the view of Australia's education union. In fact, its federal president, Pat Byrne, in the Melbourne Age said:

So, as far as the Labor Party and its fellow travellers and trashers are concerned, this is trivial. According to the Australian Education Union Victorian branch president Mary Blewett, the flag plan was `a nonsense'. So, according to their fellow travellers, it is a nonsense. According to them, it is a preoccupation with appearances. The Labor Party and the unions better start listening to people like the principal of the Haberfield Public School, Karlyanne Jacobsen. The Sydney Morning Herald this morning reports:

This is one part of a four-year program for national consistency and standards of education. It is about honouring our past, imbuing in children an understanding of the values and sacrifices of people who made this country what it is, as we think about our future and where we want to go.

The SPEAKER —The member for Swan!

The SPEAKER —Let me then warn the member for Swan! He is currently denying the member for Wills the opportunity to be heard.