GROWING UP IN Queensland, it was almost impossible to be unaware of the influence of the Sisters of Mercy. The Mercy nuns were pioneers in education and health care in Queensland, established All Hallows’ Convent, the first secondary school for girls in Brisbane and the Mater Hospitals. The first group of Irish sisters arrived in the colony in 1861 with baggage including a piano and a harmonium, and All Hallows’ – which became the home base of the Mercy nuns – was acclaimed as much for its music education as for its academic outcomes.[i]

Most of my school days were spent in schools in Brisbane run by the Sisters of Mercy and these women have had an enduringly positive and emboldening influence on me and many others, including the ‘giant killer of Bennelong’ Maxine McKew, an All Hallows’ girl who recalled last May in an article in The Australian Magazine: ‘If you want to look at those things that formed me, beyond my grandmother and Mary (mother), it’s All Hallows’, All Hallows’ and All Hallows’.[ii] A few months later, on election night 2007, the now Member for Bennelong applauded her school and the education she received from the Sisters of Mercy on national television.