The past year has certainly presented us with any number of challenges in which we have all been able to respond to and together move forward.

It's also been a big year for the Bathurst Electorate with many major announcements made and important projects getting underway.

But the good news is that in 2022 more announcements are in the pipeline and I really look forward to getting them finalised and delivering the good news to the community.

Some exciting initiatives will be seeing include the start of up to 300 IBM jobs coming here to Bathurst at Charles Sturt University to establish a Regional Innovation Centre; starting work on the $50 million Gardens of Stone project, creating the largest adventure and eco-tourism project here in the State in Lithgow; and commencing works on the $4.5 billion Great Western Highway project and so much more.

Many of these projects are about providing jobs, boosting the local economy and building a safer and stronger region.

COVID JABS FOR JUNIORS STARTS THIS WEEK

Vaccinations for children aged five to 11 commence this week with parents and carers urged to book their children an appointment as soon as possible.

The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine (Comirnaty) will be made available for the roughly 720,000 children in that age group across NSW.

More than 18,000 kids aged five to 11 have caught COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, which highlights why vaccination is so important.

We saw a great vaccination response for children aged 12-15 years, so we hope parents will book in their younger children before they start or go back to school.

I want to also encourage anyone who has not yet received a COVID-19 vaccination to do so. This includes adults who had their second dose four months ago and are now due for a booster.

NSW Health has so far delivered more than 326,027 booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines, in support of the Federal Government's vaccine program.

People aged 18 years and older can get a booster at least four months after receiving their second dose of any of the COVID-19 vaccines registered for use in Australia.