Orgill Report a vindication of Labors BER program

The Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, has welcomed the Orgill report into the Building the Education Revolution (BER) program, promising to implement all of its recommendations. Commenting on the long awaited report, Ms Gillard emphasised that the number of valid complaints by schools was a fraction - only 2.7 per cent.

Despite claims by the media and the Federal Opposition, Mr Orgill in his report, found that

‘notwithstanding the validity of issues raised in the complaints, our overall observation is that this Australia-wide program is delivering much needed infrastructure to school communities while achieving the primary goal of economic activity across the nation. There has clearly also been an added benefit of construction industry up-skilling beyond just sustaining employment.’

The Building the Education Revolution program was implemented by the Federal Government across more than 9,000 schools around the country, totalling a significant 24,000 projects. It was cited as a key part of Government's fiscal stimulus to protect jobs and provide schools with much needed infrastructure.

Ms Gillard seized on the report to again remind voters why BER was central to the government's policy to stimulate the economy at a time of severe global recession.

"The judgement was that we were going to support jobs by providing economic stimulus and building the BER was the single biggest part."

"The alternative would have been for this country to go into recession", Ms Gillard said.

Federal Labor has claimed that the Orgill report clearly validates the appropriateness of the BER program.