Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

Last Friday it was my honour to be at the farewell for Giuseppe Fin, or Joe Fin, as he was known, one of the founders of CO.AS.IT, the Italian welfare organisation in Australia. The farewell at St Fiacre's Catholic Church in Leichhardt was, of course, packed. Without doubt, he was probably the most significant leader of the Italian community in Sydney over the last century. He and his wife, Patricia—she was an organist at St Fiacre's way back, many decades ago—raised eight children; many, many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. They were all there to farewell this great community leader.

He'd been active in the Catholic Church in Italy before migrating to Australia in 1956. He, through CO.AS.IT, founded a bilingual school, which is now a very successful Sydney institution. He moved into aged care, into welfare, into providing services for people who'd migrated to this country, and CO.AS.IT became a national organisation. To all of Joe's many friends as well as his family and the Italian community of Sydney, I pay tribute to his great contribution.

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