David Moncrieff (Hughes, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm a proud Bosco boy, and in October the Bosco and the broader Engadine-Heathcote community lost a treasured member of our community and an icon of our history. Father John Briffa SDB, OAM, who passed in the late hours of Wednesday 22 October, founded two of the great institutions of Engadine and Heathcote: St John Bosco High School and John Paul Village.

Father John Briffa had been a part of Engadine life since 1964. He first came to Engadine as the resident priest at Boys Town, now the Dunlea Centre, and he became the parish priest at St John Bosco Parish in 1968. Father Briffa was someone who listened to the community's needs and took actions to meet them. He arrived at a time when Engadine and its surrounding suburbs were much less developed. He quickly identified the greatest challenges for Engadine: a lack of aged-care facilities and no local Catholic high school. Members of the parish were placing elderly relatives in care in other parts of Sydney, and students were travelling out of Engadine for high school to receive Catholic education. Father Briffa took action, and he started institutions that have grown beyond anyone's imaginings.

One of Father Briffa's most enduring legacies is the high school at which I had the privilege to learn. St John Bosco College, originally St John Bosco High School, was founded in 1978 under the initiative of the parish of St John Bosco and under Father Briffa's leadership. When he arrived, the parish, the school system and the aged-care services were all in various states of growth, but he quickly understood that this was a community in need of strong, cohesive institutions and a sense of belonging.

Bosco is a very important part of my life. I was baptised and confirmed there and I went to school there. The library in the school is named for Father Briffa, in recognition of what he contributed to it. He did not build so that his name would be on the wall; he built so future generations could stand on firm ground. He did not simply open a school; he saw it as a family, a community and something that prepared young people not only for exams but for life. The Salesian ethos emphasises that education is not simply about curriculum but about relationships, pastoral care and opportunity. The school's motto, 'Gaudium et spes', meaning 'joy and hope', reflects Father Briffa's vision of a school being more than a place for knowledge gain.

Father Briffa also saw to the needs of older members of our community. In 1985, the parish of St John Bosco in Engadine, under his leadership, opened John Paul Village in Heathcote, a retirement and aged-care village conceived to meet a local need for seniors to live with dignity in their community. Father Briffa had been taking calls from parishioners seeking somewhere for themselves and their elderly parents to live. A chance meeting with a Uniting Church minister, Reverend Keith Biddle, saw the two churches join forces. Forty years on, the village, now operated by St Vincent's Care, is still serving the community. Today it's home to more than 400 residents in aged-care rooms and independent living units.

I was fortunate enough to attend the ruby anniversary spring fair for John Paul Village a few weeks ago, in October. Father Briffa was the guest of honour at the celebration of the ruby jubilee mass for the foundation of John Paul Village. The mass was also attended by the Premier of New South Wales, Chris Minns. When I knew Father Briffa, he was the chaplain of John Paul Village, a position he took up in 2001. He was still serving the community that he'd started all those years ago.

Father Briffa knew the parish as a community. He recognised that young and old people alike needed place, purpose and care, and he helped build the infrastructure that framed that vision. For Engadine and Heathcote, this was transformative. He acted when he saw a need. The aged-care village was born because seniors in the parish had nowhere local to go. The school was born because the community needed a Catholic secondary option. He combined vision with concrete steps.

I give thanks tonight for Father John Briffa's life, his service, his humility and his steadfast dedication. His work remains visible in the classrooms where students learn, in the aged-care village where seniors live and in the parish gatherings that remember him. Father Briffa often said: 'These are my people. This is the family that God gave me.' I am deeply inspired by the power of his local initiatives and the role community leadership plays when it is grounded in compassion and when we hold the aim of the kind of community he forged—one that welcomes, supports, challenges and allows each generation to inherit a strong sense of community and belonging. The return on education from Bosco, the benefits of care from John Paul Village and the community that remains—these are multigenerational. For us in public life, that reminder is vital. We invest today for people not yet born.

Father Briffa's passing at the age of 97 marks the end of an era for Bosco, but it's an era that invites reflection on the legacy of education, justice, care and community building that continues to bear fruit. Father Briffa's funeral will be held tomorrow, Tuesday 4 November, at 10 am. God bless the soul of Father Briffa, a man who lived the gospel and built communities that will carry his legacy for many years to come. May he rest in peace.

House adjourned at 20:00

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