Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On Saturday I had the privilege of launching a book that was written by Geoff Rigby, Stephen Rigby and David Treanor. This book is called My Home in L'Arche. It is a book of stories that come together to make the one story of L'Arche. I think what L'Arche stands for is best presented in words by one of the authors, Geoff Rigby, and I might add at this point that it was Geoff Rigby that introduced to me the concept of L'Arche and also the wonderful work that is done in L'Arche communities—communities that are about creating relationships between those people that are part of the L'Arche community and the community generally.

I will go to the words of Geoff Rigby, which highlight that the words 'relationship', 'community' and 'mutuality' are the words that are commonly used to embrace the vision of L'Arche. These are words that arise when you start talking about what happens within a L'Arche community. On page 91 of the book there is a circle, and in it are a number of words that really go to the heart of what L'Arche is: it is about solidarity, relationships, community, dreaming, inclusion, tenderness, forgiving, love, joy, diversity and independence. It is recognising that people with intellectual disabilities have the same rights to have a good and full life as people that do not have intellectual disabilities.

It is the story of those people that are involved in the L'Arche community that makes this such a poignant book. I would like to just read the words about one of those people, Jason Palethorpe, who is part of the Brisbane community: 'It was with a sense of amazement that I watched Jason become an integral part of the Brisbane community,' always being supported and loved by those people that were involved in the community.

This is a fantastic book. It is wonderful work and it was done under the stewardship of Geoff Rigby. Unfortunately, Geoff Rigby is extremely ill at the moment, but this book is a testimony to his life of giving to community and caring for people in it.