John Murphy (Reid, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

On indulgence, Madam Deputy Speaker, I join my colleagues tonight to speak on our first saint in Australia, St Mary of the Cross. Last Friday I had the great privilege of attending the 125th anniversary of St Joachim’s Primary School at Lidcombe, a St Joseph’s school that was established 125 years ago by Mary MacKillop. The motto of the school is ‘Honour, Virtue, Courage, Effort’, and in the spirit of Mary MacKillop St Joachim’s Primary School at Lidcombe is committed to ‘creating an environment in which every person is encouraged to fulfil their potential’, ‘being a supportive, true and living Catholic community that witnesses the values of the gospel’ and ‘being a multicultural community of families which nurtures, accepts and supports each of its individual members’. I am sure Mary MacKillop would have been very proud of the Principal, Ms Pam Dickens, and the local parish priest, Father David Vaughan, for his celebration of the Eucharist and his engagement with the young Australians who have the benefit of a great Catholic education that had its origins 125 years ago.

Mary MacKillop, as we all know, was an extraordinary woman. Today we would probably say she is a great Australian. Born in Melbourne in 1842, Mary MacKillop went out to work at the age of 16 to support her young brothers and sisters in the local town of Penola, where she met Father Julian Woods. He was the local parish priest and had a great influence on her in promoting her mission for education, and I am personally very grateful for that mission. Although Mary is best remembered for her work in establishing many schools, she also established hospitals, orphanages and shelters for the homeless and for unmarried mothers. Clearly she worked for those who were the most disadvantaged members of our community. I had my primary school education at the hands of the St Joseph’s nuns and I am grateful for that education. I well remember Sister Augustine and I well remember her sizzling cane. I well remember Sister Dominic and Sister Angela and I have particularly fond memories of Sister Christina, who was my music teacher and had a great influence on my early love and development of music. She taught me how to play the Blue Danube and I will be forever grateful for that.

I am also grateful that my best friend, Tom Travers, who worked for my father in the local law practice in Dunedoo, also had a sister he dearly loved, Sister Fidelma, who was also a St Joseph’s nun. She was quite a character. She was a great musician, a tremendous pianist, and she too had a great influence on my life. Clearly, the life of Mary MacKillop was monumentally virtuous and monumentally heroic. The member for Shortland in her contribution almost apologised that she was not a Catholic. All of us know that that does not matter because Mary MacKillop was a person for all Australians. If anyone ever set an example of doing something to help the most disadvantaged people in Australia, surely it was St Mary of the Cross.

So, like all of us here tonight, we were very proud last Sunday to see her acknowledged with the ultimate accolade of being pronounced Australia’s first saint, and justifiably so. That was a great occasion and let us hope for all Australians, whether they are devout Catholics or whether they have absolutely no faith at all, that the heroic life that St Mary MacKillop led inspires them to fulfil their hopes, dreams and aspirations in life and that she is forever a source of love and encouragement for us all. God bless Mary MacKillop.

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