Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) acknowledges the bicentenary of Catholic education in Australia;

(2) notes that:

(a) the first official Catholic school was founded by Fr John Therry in Parramatta in 1820;

(b) Catholic schools have educated millions of Australians over the past 200 years; and

(c) today, Catholic schools are the largest provider of schooling in Australia (outside of government) educating one in five Australian school-age children; and

(3) congratulates Catholic schools and their teachers, staff and students on this incredible achievement.

It's with great pleasure that I rise today to acknowledge the bicentenary of Catholic education in Australia, and I'd like to acknowledge some visitors here today as well. I'd like to welcome Greg Whitby, Executive Director at the Catholic Education Diocese of Parramatta; Elizabeth Scully, communications manager; and Geoff Officer, the chief of operations and finance. Greg himself is a graduate of St Monica's Primary School in North Parramatta, which has been educating local students since way back in 1892—1892! How amazing is that? It's great that they're here when the Australian parliament acknowledges and celebrates the bicentenary of Catholic education in Australia.

It all started back in Parramatta in 1820—everything starts in Parramatta, it seems!—when Father John Therry and George Marley founded Australia's first Catholic school, on Hunter Street. George Marley was a bookkeeper and a former convict, and Father John was one of Australia's first official priests. They set up a school to provide educational opportunities for Catholic children. However, just as they do today, the school welcomed children from other faiths. Seven of the 31 boys and girls who made up the first class weren't Catholics; the others, of course, were.

The arrival of the Sisters of Mercy in Parramatta in 1888 was another important milestone. For those who haven't met the Sisters of Mercy in Parramatta, they're as extraordinary today as they were, no doubt, in 1888; an amazing, extraordinary group of women. The sisters established Our Lady of Mercy College Parramatta in 1889 and went on to establish schools across Sydney, including St Monica's Primary School at North Parramatta. Two hundred years later, there are 1,755 schools across the country that stem from that first one, with 777,000 students and more than 100,000 teachers and staff.

Across Australia, Catholic schools educate around one in five Australian children, but in Western Sydney it's one in four. They are an absolutely central part of our lives in Western Sydney. The diocese of Parramatta stretches from Dundas Valley in my electorate, north to Richmond, west to Katoomba and south to Luddenham, and is home to 80 schools, 43½ thousand students and more than 5,000 staff. What an extraordinary contribution that Catholic schools make. Two of the schools in my electorate, St Patricks Parramatta and Parramatta Marist High School, trace their origins back to that very first school on Hunter Street. For most of the 200 years, Catholic schools have been built and staffed without support from government, but that changed with some Commonwealth grants in the sixties and seventies. Then in 1973 the Whitlam government introduced needs based funding for non-government schools, which continues to this day.

In 2009 I was incredibly proud to attend the opening of a new school in my electorate—home to so many historic schools—the Mother Teresa Primary School at Westmead, an extraordinary school. It was a great day. I visit so many of the schools in my electorate, and I always find a group of teachers and parents absolutely committed to the education of their children and, more than that, innovation in the education of their children. When the Building the Education Revolution funding became available for schools to build school halls, I was astonished to find that virtually every Catholic school in the electorate already had a plan for one—already knew where they wanted to go, already knew how they wanted to change the nature of their classrooms, already had it all laid out—and then when the money became available they leapt in and built these extraordinary spaces where we see children learning every day. You'll also see the schools in the Parramatta electorate already trying to ensure that, when a child first enters an education environment, even in child care, they can stay in the same place through school all the way through; whole-of-life learning. They are incredibly innovative organisations. It's been an absolute pleasure to work with them as I have for so many years.

Can I also acknowledge Christine Howe, the deputy executive director at Catholic Education Diocese of Parramatta, who started her teaching career at Parramatta Marist in 1984 and was recently awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for her service to secondary education in the 2021 Queen's birthday honours. In closing, I want to congratulate all the Catholic schools on what is now their third century. They've entered their third century! Congratulations to their teachers, staff and students on what is an incredible achievement. I know we will see many more great achievements in years to come.

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