Australian Government Set to Create a BER Taskforce

The Age, 13 April 2010; The Australian, 13 April 2010

The Australian Government Minister for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, Ms Julia Gillard, has announced that the Rudd Government will set up a taskforce to investigate allegations that the Building the Education Revolution (BER) program is being rorted.

Ms Gillard has called the new $14 million taskforce an ‘extra layer of insurance’ for a program that involves 24,000 projects across 9500 schools. She stated that large-scale programs like BER would always have problems, and that ‘now we’ve seen some problems.’ She continued to say that she has now ‘formed the view that it is time for us to have a further level of insurance and this taskforce is that further level of insurance’.

The BER taskforce, which will be lead by Mr Brad Orgill, a former Chief Executive of USB Investment Bank Australasia, will examine all BER-related complaints and conduct investigations with the ‘cooperation of state governments and Catholic and Independent schools’.

A public report on the progress of the BER program will be completed on a six-month basis, with the taskforce advising the Rudd Government of occurring breaches and how and when to deal with them, which could include ‘suspending or withholding funds, termination of agreements or demands for repayment’.

Mr Tony Abbott, the Leader of the Opposition, has called the implementation of a BER taskforce as a ‘monumental backflip’.

 

 

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