Mr JOHNSON (12:02 PM) —The important issues in Ryan electorate cover such vast policy areas as health and roads and infrastructure, but they also include education. I am very pleased to speak in the parliament today and to advise all the mums, dads and students in the Ryan electorate who have a very strong interest in the quality of their education system and in the funding of their schools that the Ryan electorate has received over $1.8 million worth of funding for the 16 schools in Ryan that have been eligible for funding under the federal government’s Investing in Our Schools program. I am very delighted to commend all the wonderful initiatives the parents and friends groups of the schools in Ryan have come up with, because they certainly have come up with some wonderful projects where this money can go to improve facilities, to provide additional equipment to the students at the various schools and simply to make the experience of learning in the schools of the Ryan electorate all that much more significant and beneficial.

Under the Investing in Our Schools program, the federal government is providing over $1 billion worth of funding over the 2005-08 years to fund both government and non-government schools in the area of capital projects that have been specifically identified and prioritised by the local school communities themselves. So these projects are not projects coming from the top of bureaucracy; they are coming from the very heart and soul of the school—the parents themselves quite often, I have been told from the schools that I have visited, with great consultation and great discussions coming from the school body, the students themselves.

Of this $1 billion, $700 million has gone to government schools and $300 million has gone to non-government schools. Of course, this is on top of the Howard government’s $1.7 billion that has already been allocated for school capital works in that same time frame of 2005-08. I am sure that the Ryan constituents very keen on following government policy and on following school programs and school initiatives would be very interested to know—in particular, the schools and parents themselves would be interested to know—that there were over 8,300 applications received in the two rounds of 2005. There has been an enormous amount of interest and enthusiasm for this very commendable education policy program that has been formulated by the Howard government.

I want to mention quickly the schools in my electorate that I am very proud to represent here: Hilder Road State School in the Gap; Ironside State School in St Lucia; Chapel Hill State School; Indooroopilly State School; Indooroopilly State High School; Jamboree Heights State School and Jindalee State School, both in the ‘centenary’ suburbs of the Ryan electorate; Kenmore State High School; Moggill State School; Payne Road State School, also in the Gap; Pullenvale State School, a wonderful school in a beautiful part of the Ryan electorate; and the Rainworth State School, where I had the great opportunity to meet students. The Rainworth State School was given $45,000 out of a project cost of $50,000 to cover musical instruments and resources. They are a talented group of young people who, with the extra funding for musical instruments, certainly exhibited their great talent in welcoming me with their performance. Both the Gap State High School and the Gap State School also received funding to the tune of $78,000 and $124,000 respectively for the completion of shade structures and library music facilities. The Upper Brookfield State School received funds as well.

Again I thank in the parliament all the parents for the hard work that has been put into this program. Of course, writing up the application grants is no mean feat and they deserve my full support and they will continue to get that. As the sitting federal member for Ryan I look forward to representing the parents of Ryan in the year ahead.