Jon Sullivan (Longman, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I want to mention two functions I have attended during this week of sittings. Last night the parliamentary press gallery conducted a function at the Press Club to raise money to assist one of their own, Pete Veness, who is currently undergoing cancer treatment. Present on the night were a great many of Pete’s colleagues from the gallery and his employer, AAP, a testament to the high regard in which he is held amongst those with whom he works.

Also present were a number of MPs and senators, including both the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, and the Leader of the Opposition, Malcolm Turnbull, and many others who work in this building in one capacity or another. That was an acknowledgement that, no matter what our role here, we are all colleagues; we are all family. Pete really is family to me. His paternal great-grandfather and my maternal grandfather were brothers. Our first meeting during the 2007 election campaign, when he was travelling with then opposition leader, Kevin Rudd, is fast becoming family legend, though I fear already much distorted in the retelling.

The Veness family were the founders of the town of Manilla, near Tamworth, and using the flimsy excuse that he was married to ‘a girl from Manilla’ Senator Barnaby Joyce conducted an auction of donated items. His skills extracted every last cent of value from those items. A considerable sum of money has thus been raised to help Pete fight and overcome his cancer, thanks to the efforts of his gallery colleagues. On behalf of his family, particularly his father, David, mother, Cheryl, and partner, Rebecca or Bec, I want to place on record our sincere thanks to all who contributed.

Earlier in the week I was privileged to attend a dinner held here in Parliament House in conjunction with the annual conference of principals from Lutheran schools and colleges Australia wide. On the night a special presentation was made to Fred Stolz, Principal of Grace Lutheran College, Rothwell and Caboolture campuses, who is to retire at the end of this year. Fred Stolz has been Principal of GLC for 30 years. He was the college’s founding principal and has been its only principal.

Although not located in my electorate of Longman, GLC’s Rothwell campus has educated many hundreds of young people from families I represent, who have nothing but praise for the college and for its legendary principal. Such was the demand for places at GLC from families in my electorate that a decision was made to locate a second campus of the college in Caboolture, and in 2008 that campus was opened under the leadership of Campus Principal Allan Dallas. I was much honoured to take part in the official opening ceremony and celebrations acknowledging then and again now the financial contribution of the Howard government. Commencing with 80 students the campus will, in its third year, 2010, have a student population of around 220. The influence that Fred Stolz has had on countless young people from my electorate is immeasurable and through the Caboolture campus’s very existence will continue for many years into the future. On their behalf, and on their families’ behalf, I say to Fred a sincere thank you and extend to Fred and his wife, Lois, best wishes for a long and happy retirement.