JULIA GILLARD: Can I start by saying it's a great pleasure to be here at Bond University today to open this new and very special building. This is a building with a six star rating. It's a building at the forefront of science and technology when it comes to being energy efficient and water efficient. And within this building we are going to teach the people who are going to make a difference for tackling climate change tomorrow - the designers, the planners, the people who will make a difference to how we live and work right across this nation and right around the world.
The challenge of climate change is one of the greatest challenges this nation faces and indeed the world faces. It's the biggest economic and social challenge of our time, and to see Bond University working with Mirvac, supported by the Federal Government with a $3 million investment, playing its role in dealing with the challenge of climate change by developing a facility like this is very inspiring.
It's been a great pleasure to be here today for this opening. This is a building at Bond University that Mirvac, that the designers and certainly the Federal Government can be proud of, and what happens in this building is going to make a difference to how this nation deals with climate change.
QUESTION: Can you see Parliament House adopting the same sustainable changes?
JULIA GILLARD: We do know that our Parliament House authorities are working on doing what they can to make a difference to the energy and water consumption of Parliament House. Obviously, the building built in 1988 I think it was, and it needs retrofitting. Obviously, the great thing with a new design like this, is from the ground up as the driving principle behind it, you can build in sustainability and you can generate a green star rating like a six star rating.
QUESTION: Minister, no problems getting this amount of money to a private university from the Government's perspective?
JULIA GILLARD: The Australian Government, the Rudd Labor Government, wants every university in this country and indeed every school in this country to be a provider of excellent education. That's why we support all of the universities in this nation and why we support schools, whether they're in the State system, the Catholic system or the Independent system. We want people to have choice but we want every choice to lead to a quality education. That's what our Education Revolution is all about.
QUESTION: Talking about star ratings, you would like to see schools have some sort of a star rating system?
JULIA GILLARD: I would like to see performance information for schools available in the public domain and available most particularly to parents. And the reason we want to do that is to not create simplistic league tables that tell you nothing. We want there to be rich performance information available. We want to understand who is studying in each school, the number of children in each school who may face some form of educational disadvantage and need extra help.
And we want to understand how schools are attaining so we can compare schools in like positions and if one's doing better than the other, find out why and then spread that best practice. It's in everybody's interest, and certainly the interest of every Australian child studying at school today, for the maximum amount of information about our education system and their school to be available publicly and we will be pressing for that.
QUESTION: The Education Department has released a report into Voluntary Student Union fees saying that it's having a negative impact on universities? Should there be a revision of the system?
JULIA GILLARD: Certainly this was one of the cruellest and unkindest cuts of the Howard Government to our university system. The Howard Government abolished compulsory student unionism and as the report released by my Department shows, that means students are missing out on vital services. It means they're missing out on sporting opportunities, on welfare services, counselling services, the kind of things that students rely on and need when they're at university.
Of course, our universities were treated shabbily more broadly than that. Apart from the attack on student unionism, of course, our universities were forced to adopt the extreme Work Choices law. We're working with our universities to rebuild. We've invested already $500 million through our Better Universities Renewal Fund and that money can be used for student services, for the capital development of student services if universities choose. We also have the Bradley Review into higher education to chart a course for higher education for the next decade and beyond. And we're working to rebuild the student services, particularly being oversighted by my ministerial colleague, Kate Ellis.
QUESTION: So you won't be going back to compulsory union fees?
JULIA GILLARD: The Government prior to the election ruled out a return to compulsory student unionism. But we did say we wanted to work with universities and student organisations to make sure students have the services that they needed and also to make sure that there was a proper role for student advocacy at our universities.
QUESTION: Is there going to be a website, say university watch?
JULIA GILLARD: [laughs] What we're talking about already is $500 million of cold hard cash that's going to our universities to assist with capital development. You've heard, of course, how that's going to be used at Bond University. Universities around the country are using that to take some of the pressure off. Then we've got the Bradley Review. We need to make sure we've got a long-term plan for universities in this country that ensures that our university system is a world class system and we are working on that.
You don't fix a decade of neglect overnight, but we've done the first instalment with the $500 million through the Better Universities Renewal Fund. And we will work with the Bradley Review and our universities and with the student services to chart their course for the future.
QUESTION: Regarding our single pension, how bad is it and what does the Government intend to do about it?
JULIA GILLARD: We understand that it's tough out there for pensioners. We understand that with rising cost of living pressures that hits people on fixed incomes, and that's particularly true for older Australians. In the Budget, we tried to take some of the pressure off by providing older Australians with a $500 cash bonus and also by providing them with a higher degree of subsidy for their utilities. We know that when the gas bill rolls in or the electricity bill rolls in, that can be a difficult time. So we have a new utilities allowance that's paid quarterly to try and take some of the pressure. Between the $500 cash bonus and the $500 utilities allowance, that's a $1000 there for older Australians.
We know more needs to be done and that's why we've asked the Henry Review to look at this whole area of pension payments and the material being released today by my ministerial colleague, Jenny Macklin, is part of that process.
Can I say I noted in today's newspapers that former minister, Mal Brough says when he was a member of the Howard Government he argued for an increase in the pension rate and got knocked back by the Howard Cabinet, which of course includes Brendan Nelson, who is leader of the Opposition, Julia Bishop Deputy Leader, Malcolm Turnbull, Shadow Treasurer, and Peter Costello who was then off course Treasurer of the country, knocked back increasing pensions.
QUESTION: Do you accept that the Northern Territory election result is a kick in the pants for the Rudd Government and that, and should Anna Bligh also be concerned?
JULIA GILLARD: The Northern Territory result is obviously about the Northern Territory and I think it's important to note that Paul Henderson, the Labor Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, always said this would be a tough election for Labor and it would come down to a handful of votes in a handful of seats and how right he was. It has come down to that handful of votes in a handful of seats. We'll obviously get the full results this week. It was always going to be a tough fight for Labor and so it's proved.
What I would say is I would endorse the Prime Minister's comments that for all politicians, whatever political party they are in, whatever parliament there in, in this nation the electorate is always sending us a message that they won't stand for complacency. They want to see people getting the job done, they want to see governments with the long-term plans that will make a difference for the future and that's what the Rudd Labor Government is all about.
QUESTION: Minister, Rod Welford and Bronwyn Pike have come out and said there shouldn't be league tables and you shouldn't compare schools. It was an election promise that results of the literacy and numeracy tests would be revealed, and there was a bit of a back flip saying they wouldn't come out. What can Australian parents now expect in terms of what their kids are doing at school?
JULIA GILLARD: Well, I absolutely agree there shouldn't be league tables and that's not what the Rudd Labor Government is talking about. We're talking about a full set of information about our schools. We're in intensive discussions with our state and territory colleagues about making sure this information is available and what people should expect is they should expect us to deliver on our election promise that that performance information will be available.
QUESTION: Wont a rating system segregate schools and you know, put children at a disadvantage?
JULIA GILLARD: We're not talking about league tables; we're not talking about a simplistic rating system. We're talking about all of the information one would need to understand what's happening in a school. And if I could put the proposition very simply like this: the Government is talking about making new resources available to assist schools that face disadvantage. We know there are schools round this nation doing it tough. Educating students from poor families, educating Indigenous students, educating children with disabilities, educating children from migrant and refugee backgrounds - we want to know where those schools are so we can help them better. That's what getting this kind of information into the public domain is about, knowing where educational disadvantage is so we can fix it. Okay, thank you very much.