Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's a great pleasure to stand in this place and speak about the great job that our childcare centres are doing around the fantastic electorate of Forde. I've had opportunities of late to go and visit a number of these great childcare centres and spend some time reading to and doing some other activities with the kids. Those are great opportunities for us to see the great work these childcare centres are doing and the benefits to those centres—and, more importantly, to the families whose children attend the centres—of our new childcare package. Nearly 9,000 families in the electorate of Forde are better off under that package.

I want to particularly single out a couple of childcare centres for some great work that they're doing: the Edens Landing Childrens Centre and the Waterford West Education and Care Centre. Firstly, I'll go to the Edens Landing Childrens Centre. We all know the time pressures on families these days and how important it is for mums and dads to actually get some time together, and the Edens Landing childcare centre has sought to assist that by providing the opportunity for kids to stay longer at the centre and for mum and dad to have a date night. I think that's a great initiative of the Edens Landing childcare centre because it gives parents the opportunity just to have some time together, safe in the knowledge that their kids are being well looked after. And the team at the Edens Landing Childrens Centre do a great job. It's great to see those opportunities taken.

In addition, the Edens Landing Childrens Centre, in partnership with the Waterford West Education and Care Centre, are launching a new nature explorer program. The program will be run over different days during the week, and it offers the opportunity for kids to get out and learn more about nature. It's designed to show children the importance of looking after the natural environment. But it's also good for kids to get out and play in the natural environment, as many of us probably did as kids, running around the bush and the paddocks. Kids don't do that as much these days, and I think it's great to see kids doing that and learning more about our local native environment.

One of the things that is terrific in and around Edens Landing is that the Logan City Council has done a great job with their parks for the community to use, so there are great opportunities for these childcare centres to get the kids out of the centres and into the natural environment. I congratulate them on their initiative.