Ursula Stephens (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Social Inclusion and the Voluntary Sector) Share this | Hansard source

And Senator Back as well, who is joining in. It is a very good fan club. I want to mark the very, very important contribution to education in Australia made by the Goulburn congregation. Goulburn was where the state aid debate played out in 1961. The school inspector of the time came in to St Brigid’s school and told the principal and the parish priest, ‘I’m going to close you down if you do not upgrade those toilets.’ The parish priest and the parish said: ‘Give us some money. We will upgrade when there is some money.’ Of course, there was no money. The school inspector closed down the toilets. ‘Fine,’ said the parish priest and the bishop. They closed the parish schools and 2,000 children were put into the state schools in Goulburn. They lasted a week. The public schools were bursting at the seams; they could not cope. That marked a real commitment by the federal government of the day to make a contribution to Catholic and parish schools in order to ensure that we had some equality of education. So this is a very important point in history and it is one that is recognised and acknowledged worldwide as being quite significant. Let us celebrate 150 years of some feisty Mercy sisters.