Kirsten Livermore (Capricornia, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

On the weekend I was privileged to attend the opening celebrations to mark the expansion of the Clermont Kindergarten and Day Care Centre. The new pre-prep building and playground increases the number of places at the Clermont kindy and day care centre by 24 places. There are now 75 places at the centre—a remarkable achievement in a small rural community, even one with a heart as big as Clermont’s. The expanded and improved centre can now provide its quality services to even more families, opening up employment opportunities for parents and educational opportunities for children. The expansion project is the result of a successful partnership between the federal, state and local governments as well as Rio Tinto, who together made available the much-needed funds. The credit, however, belongs to the past and present staff, families and committee members of the centre who wrote the submissions, chased the support and managed the project.

All of us who attended the community celebration on Saturday had the feeling that we were part of something very special. Much of the sense of occasion was due to the role in the official opening of Mr Satoru Murai. As a former executive managing director of Blair Athol Mine’s Japanese joint venture partner J-Power, Mr Murai has been a friend of the centre since its beginnings 26 years ago and made the long trip from Japan to perform the opening on Saturday. I congratulate everyone involved in this fantastic project. The children and families of Clermont are lucky to be in a town that places so much value on the care and education available to its youngest citizens.

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