Mr PYNE (3:39 PM) —My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to a letter from the group of concerned builders and parents who gathered outside the parliament today to draw attention to the endemic waste and mismanagement in the school hall stimulus program. In particular I quote:

I ask the Prime Minister: will he overrule his minister and do what every commonsense Australian knows needs to be done and stop the reckless spending?

Mr RUDD (Prime Minister) —I welcome the question from the member for Sturt. The member for Sturt has stood in this place and sought to pretend that they are opposed to investment in the education revolution projects on the ground but out there—right across Australia—has sought to say the opposite. Well, member for Sturt, the truth is out. You cannot have it both ways: standing here in the parliament pretending that you are going to abolish a program, on the one hand, and going out there and saying that you are going to continue with the construction, on the other.

Mr Abbott interjecting—

Mr RUDD —Now the Leader of the Opposition interjects and says they are not going to abolish the program. Well, I would be very interested to hear from the Leader of the Opposition what he will do with this program. What will he do with this program?

Honourable members interjecting—

The SPEAKER —Order! The Prime Minister has the call.

Mr RUDD —He will pay the money to the schools and cut out the public servants?

Mr Abbott interjecting—

Mr RUDD —What else are you going to do? I heard it was sort of ‘stop the funding, restructure it’ and enable yourself to slip and slide through each of the seats represented by those opposite and have members pretend, on the one hand, that they are not opposed to an investment in their local school and, on the other hand, pretend here that they are in fact doing something exactly the reverse. The member for Sturt twists and turns on this matter. Watch his correspondence and look at his behaviour on the ground as one after another of those opposite have stood up in front of their public schools and said, ‘We welcome this investment.’ Mr Speaker, do you know something: those opposite, if they have any integrity on this question, need to actually list by name, by school in each one of their electorates which project they support and which they oppose, because there are many of these projects underway at present—7,000 of them—and a large number would be in the electorates represented by those opposite. Which will you stop and which will you allow to continue? That is the core question which will be asked in each and every one of your electorates as this year progresses.

But I make one further point to the member for Sturt in response to his question. If he bothered, as those opposite may have bothered, to listen to the exposition on the national accounts earlier today or read the reports associated with the national accounts, he would understand one thing: what has stood between Australia and going into recession is this government’s stimulus strategy. What has stood between this country going into recession is this government’s stimulus strategy. What has prevented 200,000 more people going out of work is this government’s stimulus strategy. What has enabled tens of thousands of small businesses to continue to operate is this government’s stimulus strategy. In each and every one of the regions represented in this place there are small business men, chalkies, subcontractors and the rest, all of whom—

Mr Hockey —Chalkies?

Mr RUDD —chippies and those who are responsible for the building industry—

Opposition members interjecting—

The SPEAKER —Order!

Mr RUDD —You said it about chalkies. And those who are in the classroom want the Building the Education Revolution as well. Those opposite pretend that the stimulus strategy has had no effect on the overall state of the Australian economy.

Opposition members interjecting—

The SPEAKER —Order! The Prime Minister will resume his seat. The Prime Minister now has the call. He should be listened to in silence.

Mr RUDD —Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. Each and every one of the teacher representatives welcomes these school buildings. Each and every one of the building subcontractors welcomes these school buildings. They welcome new language centres. They welcome new science centres. They welcome also, on top of that, new state-of-the-art learning centres for primary schools. Each and every one of these is welcomed by local communities. But the Leader of the Opposition sits there and guffaws. He sits and guffaws because he knows nothing about economics; he has no interest in economics. He has been described by the previous Treasurer as being unfit to occupy any economic portfolio in the government, most particularly that of Treasurer. His colleagues in the previous cabinet said he could not be described remotely as a fiscal conservative, that he had one attitude to every proposal, which was to run to the office of the former Prime Minister and seek intervention.

The Leader of the Opposition knows full well that, had we prosecuted his recipe, which was to implement the New Zealand solution for the Australian economy, this economy would have gone into recession, this economy would have seen the loss of hundreds of thousands of Australian jobs and those opposite know that full well. So the sanctimonious performance by those opposite as they stand here and pretend to be interested in macro-economic questions on debt and deficit and the impact of these investments in their schools is all one paper tissue of untruths and misrepresentations. Those opposite know the truth on the ground. They know that these investments are critical to the future of school communities.

Dr Southcott interjecting—

The SPEAKER —The member for Boothby will leave the chamber under 94(a) for one hour.

The member for Boothby then left the chamber.

Mr RUDD —This government defends the Building the Education Revolution program. It is the right program for the future and we stand by it 100 per cent.

Mr Pyne —Mr Speaker, I seek leave to table the letter from the Taxpayers Action Group that I referred to.

Leave not granted.