The annual march and ceremony in Busselton was a marvellous start to the day’s celebrations and I felt privileged to attend and to meet and welcome our new Australian citizens.

I was also delighted to present the 2010 Premier’s Australia Day Active Citizenship award to Busselton Community Garden and would like to extend my congratulations to the members of such a worthy community project whose success is attributed to their continued diligent and energetic work.

The start of a new year provides us all with a focus of new challenges and goals to achieve and I wish you all well in your endeavours.

It is never too early to start reaching for those long-term goals and aspirations, however big or small, and is even more rewarding when we work together as a community.

I have very much enjoyed having my summer break at home in Busselton with my family, which has provided me with a first-hand opportunity to discuss community issues with so many of you and to reflect on my priorities as your State representative in the Vasse electorate.

As our children return to school, they will see the progress of various works programs at many of our schools that benefited from State capital works programs and Federal funding as part of the Building the Education Revolution Program.

Last month the Minister for Education, Liz Constable, congratulated the performance of country schools, including Busselton, in the Curriculum Council’s Year 12 student achievement data.

In a further announcement she stated that Western Australia had led the rest of the nation in assessing and publicising numeracy and literacy testing results in early childhood.

It continues to be a priority for the State Government to raise the overall literacy and numeracy standards of WA school students across all education sectors.