Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

asked the Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Jobs and Workplace Relations, upon notice, on 12 October 2011:

In regard to the Building the Education Revolution program: (1) How many schools used the program funding to build a vegetable or kitchen garden, a kitchen or school dining facility. (2) Can a breakdown of these schools be provided by state and territory.

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The answer to the honourable senator's question is as follows:

The Australian Government has committed funding of $16.2 billion to provide new facilities and refurbishments in Australian schools to meet the needs of 21st century students and teachers through the Building the Education Revolution (BER) program.

Under BER Guidelines, Education Authorities were required to report on a range of project types. Vegetable or kitchen gardens, kitchen or school dining facilities were not identified for reporting as a discrete project type.

While schools may have included such features in their projects, for example kitchens/canteen facilities are often included in multipurpose halls, the Department is unable to provide the information sought, as this level of detail is not required to be reported.