Louise Markus (Macquarie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I had the great pleasure of opening the Hazelwood Early Childhood Centre on Thursday, 10 July. The centre is a long-awaited project located in one of the many beautiful areas of the Blue Mountains. I opened it as both the federal member for the area and as the representative of the Assistant Minister for Education, the Hon Sussan Ley. The vision of a new Hazelwood Early Childhood Centre had been planned for some time and it will provide a home for the passionate and committed Hazelwood teachers to continue their important work of delivering quality child care at a most important stage of life.

The pre-existing childcare centre, now 32 years old, had 38 places, and needed to expand to provide extra places to service the needs of Hazelbrook and mid-mountains families. Many mid-mountains families need to travel off the mountains to access employment. Ms Lise Nielson has been a teacher at Hazelwood all that time and will celebrate 32 years there this month. I congratulate and thank her for her outstanding commitment. Hazelwood's first thoughts were to expand their current site. It soon became clear that the better option was to build a new facility, but there were not many options available. Sadly, the owner of the home next door, Mr Hewson, passed away. That did, however, allow negotiations to begin with the Hewson family to purchase the property. There were many battles to be fought, but through determination the dream has come to fruition. The director of the Hazelwood Early Childhood Centre, Lil De Bono, described at the opening how children had peered over the fence in awe to watch their new childcare centre being built, giving the children a sense of ownership and pride.

Childcare requires a safe, secure and suitable environment for children. Of course parents and carers provide the first and most significant education for a child, but child care, in all its forms and variety, is usually the first organised learning environment children encounter—and it is crucial to children achieving success in their future education. Whilst learning is paramount, with wisdom you can have wonder. The new facility Hazelwood offers is an amazing environment for children to learn, discover, develop, grow and experience in their early years. With that in mind, I must acknowledge JDH Architects and their architect, Jayne Harrison, for the incredible state-of-the-art design—it had never been built before. The centre has been built to accommodate children of all abilities. This means that many parents with children with a disability will be able to access local child care without having to travel a considerable distance.

Teamwork can accomplish great things and Hazelwood Early Childhood Centre is an example of such collaboration between the federal government, Blue Mountains City Council and Connect Child and Family Services. The federal government committed more than $2 million for the project. Blue Mountains City Council committed $700,000. Through complimentary roadworks, Roads and Maritime Services, an agency of the New South Wales government, contributed to the approximate value of $100,000. I thank the state member for Blue Mountains, Roza Sage, for her advocacy. In addition to providing a purpose-built, state-of-the-art facility, Hazelwood will now offer 52 places, which will help the working needs of families in Hazelbrook and the mid-mountains. Being close to home, it will assist people to achieve a better work-life balance.

I would like to acknowledge those who played a part in making Hazelwood a reality. These include the councillors and staff of Blue Mountains City Council, both past and present—in particular Councillor Chris van der Kley, who fought many of the battles; the mayor, Mark Greenhill; and the general manager, Robert Greenwood—and the CEO and the general manager of Connect Child and Family Services, Dr Dianne Jackson and Dee Hogden. I would also like to acknowledge the director of the Hazelwood Childhood Centre, Lil De Bono; the successive representatives—all of us have worked and lobbied for this project to reach completion—of the people of Macquarie; Roads and Maritimes Services; Jayne Harrison, architect at JDH Architects; Connect Child board members; and the Friends of Hazelwood, including members of the Hazelbrook Association. In conclusion, but certainly not least importantly, I acknowledge the teachers, parents and children of Hazelbrook