Well thank you very much Jason for those very generous words of welcome. To Mr Tony Sheumack, the Headmaster of the school, other staff members, parents and most importantly of all, students. I'm really delighted to spend a few moments with you today to thank you for the warmth and the courtesy of the welcome that you have extended to me.
I have the opportunity in my job of visiting many schools around Australia. And it's always refreshing to be entertained by some of the musical items, to hear a story about some of the values that are important to our society and we heard this morning, we saw this morning from the video a reminder that in the past we have not always distinguished ourselves in the way in which we have treated people of a different colour. And it is a reminder in our world that barriers of colour and race and nationality should always be understood, for some of the very negative effects they have, not only on the human personality, but also on the way in which we live our lives and the way in which our countries interact with each other.
I'm often reminded of one of the more infamous remarks that came out of World War II when the then Russian leader, Joseph Stalin, who although he was an ally of Australia and Britain and America at the time against Nazi Germany, he had a record of brutality and murder and genocide and suppression that in the eyes of many historians was close in its resemblance to that of Adolf Hitler. And he was told that the Pope was critical of something that he was doing, I think to an ethnic minority in the Soviet Union because the ethnic minorities of that country were brutally put down and many of them murdered during World War II, and both before and after the war. And his cynical, dismissive reply was the Pope, how many divisions does he have? And what he was really saying was that if you didn't have under your command divisions and armies, you were of no account. Of course the Pope and the spiritual force that the Pope and his successors represented proved to be more powerful than any of the divisions that were commanded by the Soviet leader at that time. And in the fullness of time that particular Pope's successor was to play a major role as a native of Poland in bringing about the end of the Soviet empire and the restoration of freedom including freedom of religion for the people, not only of his native and beloved Poland, but also of other people in Eastern Europe. And it's a reminder to all of us that the force of values and the spiritual force in our lives, and our community is always in the end infinitely more important and powerful than anything else. That is not to say that from time to time countries do not need to resort to military force to defend themselves and to promote values and to right wrongs and to correct injustices. But it does mean in the end that the force of values and the things of the spirit are stronger than anything else.
Today of course is an opportunity for me again to pay tribute to the hundreds of independent schools around Australia. We have a wonderfully diverse education system in this country. We have government schools, we have independent schools of different kinds and the important thing in all of it is that Australian parents should retain the right to choose the type of education they want for their sons and daughters.
And this school, the Beaconhills Christian College, is an expression of the choice of the growing number of parents who want their children educated and advised and counselled within a values system that reflects their choice, but consistent on all occasions with the curriculum and the general goals of the education system of this State and of this country. And that is how it should be. We should not have a single uniform system of education. We should of course have common goals and common standards, but within those common goals and standards we should allow parental choice. And the fact that hundreds of parents have chosen this school at some cost to themselves financially, although fortunately because of the growth of independent schools and the range of funding support that is now available, growing number of parents of average income and means, are able to exercise the choice of sending their children to independent schools.
I say that not in criticism of the government school system. I am myself a product of a total government school education in New South Wales and I am greatly in debt to that government education system for the quality of the education that I received. The important thing is that parents should have a choice. And your parents, the parents here today, and many before you and many after you have had that choice, and you have decided to exercise it. And I commend the school. I congratulate it on its extraordinary progress. It's growing with the years, to, I know, year 12. It has two campuses and your Headmaster explained to me a little while ago the numbers that he expects to have enrolled when the school reaches its full development. And it's remarkable that this campus has only been in operation since 2003. And one of things I would like to do is to announce, or confirm, because the school has already been advised of this, that the Commonwealth Government has decided in accordance with the procedures we have for allocating capital support for independent schools, we have provided, decided to provide a grant of $750,000 to the Beaconhills Christian College at this campus for use in relation to not only general learning areas, but associated staff work rooms, offices, store rooms, four science laboratories and science preparation and store areas. This grant will add to the financial support by way of capital grants that the Government has already provided and it will of course be in addition to the recurrent funding which defray I understand, something over half the cost, the operating costs of this school.
So can I say to all of you thank you for the courtesy that you have extended to me. Can I say to all of the students as I say to any student body I address anywhere in Australia, value the counsel and instruction of your teachers. Teaching is a most noble and valuable profession. The instruction and teaching of young Australians is so critical to this nation's future. We rely increasingly on teachers. We rely on teachers to do more now than we expected them to do a generation ago - it is just the nature of society. Parents do their best, many of them do more than their best. They share in a magnificent way the responsibilities of running a school community as well as their own lives and raising their own children. But it is a day in which to pay special tribute to the role of teachers within our communities. And can I finally say again to you Jason thank you for such a warm welcome. Can I commend my friend and colleague Jason to you, he's only been with us in parliament for a little over a year. He brings great enthusiasm, great dedication and most importantly of all he's very committed to the people of his electorate and he will pester and nag and counsel and hector and everything until he gets his way in relation to the interests of the people of La Trobe, and that is how it should be.
To all of you thank you and good luck in the years ahead. And I hope all of you who leave this school, leave with a sense of pride and satisfaction, with a sense of achievement and as you go about your ways, to university, to technical college, or straight into a job, whatever it may be, you take with you for the rest of your lives the values and the perspectives that you have learnt at this school. And if you do that you won't go far wrong.
Thank you.
[ends]