Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to acknowledge the significant event that took place only a month ago commemorating the canonisation of Australia’s first Catholic saint, St Mary of the Cross. As Australians gathered throughout the country, we were reminded of the transformative power of this visionary leader, Mary MacKillop. In our modern world there are too few times when we stop to acknowledge the good deeds of others. However, on October 17 2010, Australians paused to recognise the great legacy of St Mary of the Cross.

Mary was born in Fitzroy, not far from my own electorate of Kooyong, in 1842. Due to her family’s insufficient income, St Mary of the Cross was unable to experience formal education herself and it is without doubt that her personal experiences influenced her determination to open up education to all Australians. She was educated at home by her father, Alexander MacKillop, and was well educated in her faith. That was to be the foundation of her later religious vocation. Mary went out to work at the age of 16, needing to boost the income of her family, and that need saw her move to the small town of Penola in South Australia to work as the governess to her cousins, the Cameron children.

As part of Mary’s role as the family’s governess, she became the primary educator of the Camerons. This role sparked in her a passion for education and a desire to provide educational services to those who were not in a position to provide this for themselves. While in Penola, she met local Catholic parish priest Father Julian Tenison Woods, who shared her concerns about the number of parishes without schools for children. It was in Father Tenison Woods that St Mary of the Cross found someone who shared her desire to improve education access for all poor and underprivileged children in Australia.

I am honoured to have in my own electorate a number of individuals continuing to carry out the legacy of St Mary of the Cross—those who through their own religious vocation continue her work and that of her religious foundation are the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart. The Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart continue St Mary’s mission in assisting the community at Mary MacKillop Aged Care nursing home in the Hawthorn, in the Kooyong electorate. They are the successors to the original Josephite congregation, founded in the small South Australian town of Penola by St Mary of the Cross. The Josephites, or the Brown Joeys as they are affectionately known, continue today to follow the original path set out by St Mary of the Cross. It is a true testament to St Mary’s good work that many of the schools she and her sisters established throughout Australia still stand to this day. The path she forged in education and community assistance has allowed Australian children of all backgrounds the opportunity to access a full and rich education and family life.

I stand here today as someone who is deeply proud of the impact St Mary of the Cross had on both the Catholic Church and the wider Australian community. I also stand here as a proud representative of an electorate with many Catholic parishes and schools who carry out the great work supported by St Mary of the Cross. Among them are All Hallows Catholic Church and Primary School, Balwyn; Genazzano College, Kew; Our Holy Redeemer Catholic Church and Primary School, Surrey Hills; Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic Church and Primary School, Deepdene; Sacred Heart Catholic Church and Primary School, Kew; Siena College, East Camberwell; St Anne’s Catholic Church and Primary School, Kew East; St Bede’s Catholic Church and Primary School; North Balwyn; St Bridget’s Catholic Church and Primary School, Greythorn; St Christopher’s German Speaking Catholic Church, Camberwell; St Dominic’s Catholic Church and Primary School, East Camberwell; St Joseph’s Catholic Church and Immaculate Conception Catholic Church; St Joseph’s Primary School, Hawthorn; St Paul’s College, Kew; and Xavier College and Burke Hall, Kew.

When St Mary of the Cross opened her first Josephite school, she wrote of a ‘humble beginning for a great work’. St Mary of the Cross reminds us all of the redeeming power available through assisting others, and her great work has left a lasting legacy of which we are all the beneficiaries.