Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm going to tell you about the local St Brendan's community. St Brendan's is my local church, the church where my mother and father were married and where my mother was buried, and St Brendan's school is where my children went to school. Recently I celebrated its centenary with Archbishop Mark Coleridge, and a few weeks ago there were 90th-anniversary celebrations of the school, which were opened by Pam Betts, the Executive Director of Brisbane Catholic Education, and Nicole Cox, the school's principal. We had a great time there.

St Brendan of Clonfert was known as 'the navigator' and was renowned for his legendary quest to the Isle of the Blessed. This school does much the same thing. It is a navigator for kids in the education ocean, particularly those kids with disabilities. It always provides a helping hand. It is a safe, warm environment, a school with great heart, great committed educators and switched-on parents. The school motto is 'Live in faith and love'. That is not a bad plan for life generally but that's certainly being lived out at the St Brendan's school and the St Brendan's church.

I know Nicole Cox is leading them on to bigger and brighter things. I thank the teachers and the parents for putting on the fete a few weeks ago and I look forward to helping out wherever I can. I particularly want to say how wonderful the band, Random Access, was. I recommend them. They certainly made for an interesting afternoon, especially when, like a good Catholic school, it had a bar operating.