Jason Clare (Blaxland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On the day the Prime Minister announced my appointment as education minister, one of the first text messages I received was a from a friend, Murray Kitteringham. The text read:

Congratulations on being named Education Minister. Really proud and excited to have a Labor government in, you as our local member and in education. Let's talk.

I texted back the next day, 'Thanks Murray, sounds good.' We never got to have that chat. Twelve days later Murray passed away of a heart attack. He was only 51. He was fit. He was at the beach exercising that morning. When he came home, he suffered a heart attack and was rushed to hospital, but never made it.

Murray was the principal of Sir Josephs Banks High School in my electorate, and he wasn't just any principal. He was the sort of guy who turned schools around and who transformed the lives of everybody fortunate enough to interact with him. When he started at the school, enrolments were low and there was a small proportion of female students—something like 29 per cent. Now Sir Joseph Banks is one of the highest-growth high schools in New South Wales. It's in the top one per cent of schools in the state for student growth between year 9 and year 12, and it has some of the highest rates of improvement of any public school for literacy and numeracy. That's because of Murray; that's his legacy. He was a leader, respected by everybody around him. They loved him, and they miss him, and so do I.

He was a principal's principal—a staunch advocate for public education and for making sure that kids from disadvantaged backgrounds get the education they deserve. He was an innovator. He made sure that year 7 was structured in a way so it was more like year 6, so kids that are making that big transition from primary school to high school fit in a bit easier—for example, having a single teacher for big parts of the day. He employed youth workers at the school because he knew that giving students the support they needed was often the difference between success and failure.

Like all of Murray's friends in education, I was shocked by his death. I will never forget Murray, his passion, his purpose and what he lived for: those kids. And I hope that, in some small way, I can carry on that work in the task that I do as education minister. I pass on my sincere condolences to his wife, Erin, and his kids, Lily and Baxter. We have lost a truly great man. Rest in peace, my friend.