Prime Minister Julia Gillard today paid tribute to one of Australia's greatest nation-builders and former Prime Ministers, Ben Chifley, by officially opening the Chifley Home Education Centre in Bathurst.
The Prime Minister joined Chifley family members and the Mayor of Bathurst Regional Council, Paul Toole, at the Chifleys' Bathurst home, which will host the new education centre.
The new Chifley Home Education Centre documents the many reforms Ben Chifley achieved for our nation including:
* Laying the foundations for Australia's post-war economic boom with reforms like uniform national taxation and policies for full employment;
* establishing unemployment and sickness benefits;
* expanding access to a university education;
* introducing federal funding of public hospitals and the creation of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme;
* welcoming refugees from war-ravaged Europe as part of the post-war immigration boom; and
* giving Australia a leadership role in the establishment of the United Nations.
The new centre also recognises the construction of the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme, a project which is widely credited as one of Chifley's finest achievements and recognised internationally as one of the great engineering feats of the world.
Speaking at the site, the Prime Minister said the Chifley Home Education Centre would help enrich the cultural identity of both Bathurst and the nation as a whole.
In the darkest days of the Second World War, Labor was called on to lead the nation through a very tumultuous period of uncertainty.
Against the odds, the legendary leadership of John Curtin and Ben Chifley reconstructed the nation and prepared it for peace and a new global order.
The Busby Street site served as the only home of Ben Chifley and his wife, Elizabeth, and was opened as a memorial to the former Prime Minister in 1973.
The new extension to the centre includes exhibition areas, a museum shop, and an interactive education room with period furnishings and historical artefacts.
The $540,000 project was funded by the Australian Government, Arts NSW and the Bathurst Regional Council.