The evidence has been mounting over the past decades and is now incontrovertible that the early years of childhood are of vital significance to a child’s development.

Parliamentary Secretary for Social Inclusion and the Voluntary Sector, Senator Ursula Stephens, today addressed the 5th Annual Associations Forum National Conference about the future of Australia’s non profit-sector.

Yours is a sector that’s vital to the health of our nation.

The government is keenly aware of the enormous value the sector brings to our nation’s prosperity and social cohesion.

And that’s why since coming to government almost three years ago we’ve placed a high priority on improving the environment in which you work, and, importantly, on improving the relationship between us.

Senator the Hon Ursula Stephens and Federal Candidate for Macarthur Nick Bleasdale today attended the official opening of the new library at Hope Christian School in Narellan, built as part of Federal Labor’s Building the Education Revolution (BER).

Sixteen community organisations in the Young and Cowra region will share in almost $50 000 in Australian Government Volunteer Grants.