The Building the Education Revolution (BER) program will see $14.7 billion over three years spent on new and upgraded infrastructure and infrastructure maintenance in Australian schools.

More than $2.56 billion is expected to be allocated to Queensland state and non-state primary and secondary schools to build libraries, multi-purpose halls, classrooms, science laboratories and language centres and refurbish existing school infrastructure.

However, the funding is contingent on the school building projects being fast-tracked, to ensure jobs are created quickly to help stimulate the Australian economy.

The Australian Government has placed tight deadlines on schools for applying for BER funding and commencing work. Commencement is defined as ‘post-design work that incurs costs’—typically construction work.

These timeframes would not have been adequate for all councils to decide all development applications.

This is why the state government amended the Integrated Planning Regulation 1998 ( 200 KB) (IPR) on 24 April 2009.

The amendment exempts development for BER-funded school building projects from assessment against local government planning schemes provided the development meets the criteria listed in the amended IPR.

Making development for BER building projects exempt from planning scheme assessment means any usual council development approvals are not required. This will allow construction to begin sooner than would otherwise be the case and ensure Queensland schools do not miss out on the federal funding.

While some new development work at schools is already exempt from council assessment, other work may not be. The amendment to the IPR will ensure all schools can apply for the funding on an equal footing.

Development for certain individual BER-funded school projects has also been identified in further amendments to the IPR ( 191 KB) as exempt from planning scheme assessment.

Contact

For more information, contact the relevant body.

General information

• Questions and answers ( 82 KB)

Fact sheets for:

• Local governments ( 85 KB)
• Schools ( 90 KB)
• Building certifiers ( 93 KB)

Forms

• BER school project—exemption from planning scheme assessment compliance checklist (v4 - 31 July 2009) ( 190 KB): identifies the criteria that must be met for a BER project to be exempt. It includes other development assessment scenarios that might apply to a BER project, e.g. state government assessments.
• BER school project—request for listing a project in the IPR (v2 - 12 May 2009) ( 86 KB): for asking the Minister to consider whether development for a particular project could be individually listed in the IPR as exempt from planning scheme assessment.

Development assessment process

The flowchart below illustrates the process for identifying and addressing development assessment requirements for BER school projects. The flowchart should be read in conjunction with the relevant fact sheet.

Click on image to enlarge—if using Explorer 6.0, place pointer over image before clicking ‘Expand to regular size’ icon.
BER Flowchart  ( 187 KB)