Timbarra College, Berwick
Jan Adamson, Principal of Timbarra College: Today we're hosting the Community Cabinet, here at Timbarra College.
Timbarra College Student: The Prime Minister Julia Gillard and other Ministers, they're coming tonight to do a public forum.
Jan Adamson: It's fantastic for our students who have been quite heavily involved in the preparation for today. They were all hanging out the windows waving to the Prime Minister when she arrived.
Community Member 1: And I thought, its good chance to be seen and put my point of view across.
Community Member 2: That's one of the best reasons why I'm here, is to actually see them out in the field meeting the real people and hear what they've got to say.
Community Member 3: It's very good for the government to actually mingle with the public, you know, associating with the government. And the government's not too distant; the government's actually working hand-in-hand at a local level with the local community.
Georgina Nicholson, Wurundjeri Elder:Wominjeka Wurundjeri Ballak Yearmenn Koondibeek. Meaning: welcome to the traditional land of the Wurundjeri people.
The Hon Julia Gillard MP, Prime Minister: I'm not going to speak very long, because this is your opportunity to pose a question or give us a reflection on the future.
Question: At the moment there's a significant issue with teenage suicide and I just feel there's just not enough support or programs available.
The Hon Tanya Plibersek MP: We've put a significant investment into mental health of around $200 million dollars nationally, which translated to about $40 million dollars for Victoria.
Question: In February 2011, Casey was flooded, which affected 18 hundred homes. Is the government working on responses to emergency situations to be the same response Australia-wide?
The Hon Bill Shorten MP: In insurance they have product disclosure statements that you need a PhD to read. So, this government's the first one to have changed the Insurance Contracts Act. We've now got one definition of what a flood is.
The last thing you need to worry about when your house has been flooded is whether your insurance company will pay up after you've been paying their premiums for years. And I think we have gone a long way to fixing most of those issues.
Question: What is the federal government's vision for education in the long term?
Prime Minister: Our vision for school education is that we are offering the best quality so our kids are getting a world class education, but we are offering that best quality to all children. That's what our investments in teacher quality have been about, in disadvantaged schools, our investments in literacy and numeracy, it's why we are putting computers into classroom, it's why we want a national curriculum that lifts quality around the nation and we make sure that poorer kids get a great education too.
Community Member 4: I'm happy to know that they are here and that they are doing a real sort of consultation with the community; it's not a window dressing.
Community Member 5: I was actually quite surprised by the amount of people that were my age. It's really good to see young people getting involved, which is what we need, because youth are the future.