Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about the loss of two very important members of our local community. The first is Margaret Neale. She was a woman who retired to Erskineville and became an absolutely integral part of our local community in Erskineville—a hard worker, a volunteer, a friend to many and a friendly face.

Margaret was surrounded by her friends and family when she passed. She died at home, as was her wish—unfortunately, many Australians do not get to complete that wish—and she will be sadly missed.

I also want to talk about John Charles McIntyre. Reverend Mac—Bishop John, as he became—spent his last working years in Victoria. He was installed in 2006 as the Bishop of Gippsland and St Paul's Cathedral in Sale. But for 16 years he was the rector at St Saviour's church in Redfern. He was much loved and he will be greatly missed. We were honoured that his family chose St Saviour's.

People said of him that he was a man of the people, genuinely caring about the community and engaging with it, especially the vulnerable. That is what Reverend Dorothy McRae-McMahon said. When one of the church pews went missing, Reverend John saw it at the second-hand dealers and asked, 'Isn't that from St Xavier's?' 'Oh no, a good friend of mine gave it to me.' John would then say, 'They must have needed it more,' and let it go, and one of the parishioners told that story. Reverend Bill Lawton, his friend, said he was 'a man whose heart lay with the alien and the outsider'.

In his very last talk, just three weeks before he died, he called on the church to:

… be present in community with an integrity of being that assures all those whose lives we touch that we are there alone for their wellbeing; that we are constantly and consistently committed to peace with justice, mercy and inclusion.

He called on the government and community to offer compassion and justice to asylum seekers, respond to climate change and reject the agenda set out by the Commission of Audit.

He is a man who will be sorely missed. Pastor Ray Minniecon said:

John Mac had this incredible ability to blend into the social fabric of our local community without being "seen" as a priest or a "do-gooder". He knew how to feel the pulse, the pain, the suffering as well as the strength and resilience of our local people and community. He became "one" with the people and their struggles rather than someone who "had all the answers" and told you what you needed to know and do.

Rest in peace, Father John.