FED:BER program saved jobs: Evans

AAP General News (Australia)
12-15-2010
FED:BER program saved jobs: Evans
(EDs: Reissuing to correct title in 3rd and 10th par)

By Greg Roberts

MELBOURNE, Dec 15 AAP - A report on the $16.2 billion schools buildings program released
on Wednesday was proof the stimulus package was a great success, says the federal government.

The independent report released by the Building the Education Revolution (BER) taskforce
on Wednesday showed only three per cent of schools involved in the program had complained,
said Tertiary Education, Skills, Jobs and Workplace Relations Minister Chris Evans.

"The report is very positive about the program," Senator Evans told reporters.

"We've got good results in terms of the stimulus, the jobs created in the building
industry when private construction was very soft, it's still quite soft but that saved
a lot of jobs in the building sector.

"If you go to the schools you will find fantastic halls, classrooms, libraries, that
would not have been built, that would not be there now, which kids are already using,
more will be completed in coming months.

"You're not going to have 8000 construction projects without getting complaints, we've
got three per cent of schools that have had complaints against them, some of those have
been resolved quite easily, some are more serious."

The report said complaints have been made about 294 schools, which represent three
per cent of the overall number involved in the BER program.

Taskforce head Brad Orgill criticised the NSW government's management, saying its building
projects were the most expensive, with more than three-quarters of complaints relating
to value for money.

In Victoria, less than a quarter of projects had been completed, with the majority
of complaints about delays and value for money.

Senator Evans said the complaints were disappointing, taken seriously and investigated,
but ultimately state and not federal governments ran schools in Australia.

"We're accountable, that's why we've commissioned the Orgill report, this is what we
did in response to concerns," he said.

"NSW delivered it very quickly so in terms of the stimulus objectives they did very
well, but they have had problems as a result of the model they adopted in order to get
the buildings built quickly and he's (Mr Orgill) quite critical of some of those things.

"But overall if you look at Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania,
they get a very good report card, the independents and Catholic schools get very good
reports.

"It's equally true that the states run the schools in Australia and we provided an
injection of funds to help them improve the quality of facilities at the schools as part
of the stimulus package."

AAP gr/pmu/it

KEYWORD: SCHOOLS EVANS (REISSUE)

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