Viewpoint

Thank you for parent support in ensuring that most of the boys have commenced the year with appearance and uniform aligned with our expectations as a school. When in public, the manner in which a student comports himself is a certain sign of the pride he has in being a part of Riverview.

I look forward to 2026 with much hope and optimism as we continue our mission together. The following are my remarks to new students in the Senior School on Wednesday, followed by my address to all Senior School students on Thursday in Ramsay Hall.

Welcome to all Year 7s and other new students beginning across Years 8 to 11 at our Jesuit school.

You are the Class of 2031. Which means you will be the 151st graduating class of Saint Ignatius’ College Riverview. You are going to be a cohort of young men for others who will make us proud. I am looking forward to accompanying each of you on your journey over the next six years.

Many of you are new to the College today. I want you to know that you are already one of us. You belong to Saint Ignatius’ College Riverview.

You are going to hear a lot of information today about the Senior School today and we will be looking after each of you to ensure that your start is a successful one. Your Head of House and Assistant Head of House will be the adults who will come to know you best in the years to come.

Perhaps the most important information we want to give you is that a Jesuit school offers its students a very special spirituality that was taught to the Jesuits by Saint Ignatius of Loyola. This spirituality calls us to find God in all things. In our environment. In our families. In our school. In our friendships. It especially calls us to find God in the last, the least and the lonely.

We are going to offer you Jesus as the model of your lives and, being true to our College motto, we want you to dare to do great things in your life. These great things are not about fame, power or wealth. No, when we speak about greatness, we speak of following God and being grateful for our gifts.

I saw most of you at your Orientation Day last year. When you sat in the old Father Mac Pavillion, I told you that we have some expectations of each of you this year:

We expect you to get involved. This Jesuit school offers an amazing breadth of opportunities and activities. Try them out. Find those programs that suit your gifts and pursue excellence in them.

We expect you to come to school each day ready to learn and to listen to your teachers. They have your bests interests at heart, and they want to see you engaged, learning and achieving in your studies.

Above all else, we expect you to look after each other. To be men for others by caring for your classmates when they need your help.

To those boys who were in Year 6 at Regis last year, we have a very special role for you. We want you to look after those boys who are new to Riverview this year. If you see a fellow Year 7 on his own at lunchtime or recess, invite him into your group.

All my very best wishes, boys, for the journey ahead. We are proud of who you are, but we are especially proud of who you are to become.

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Good Morning Father Rector, Staff and good morning especially to you boys of Saint Ignatius’ College Riverview. It is good to see you all back.

Many of you are new to the College today. I said to you yesterday, you are already one of us. You belong to Saint Ignatius’ College Riverview. I hope this year is a meaningful one for all of you. That you experience the joy of facing new challenges and overcoming them. That you are inspired by what you learn in your classes and are a witness to hope for others in our community. I especially hope for these dimensions of your experience at Riverview this year:

That you pursue human excellence in all that you do and that others see you as a man of competence, commitment, conscience and especially compassion.

That because of your pursuit of human excellence, you continue to grow as a man for others. A man who puts others before himself, but does so anonymously because goodness is its own reward.

That you seek God in all things. Because God is there waiting for you with His unconditional love.

And that you genuinely consider Jesus as the model of human life. The source of all that is true and all that is good.

We haven’t seen you all summer and so I need to name the event that will come to define this period in Australian history. Last Thursday was a National Day of Mourning for the victims of the Bondi Massacre on December 14. Like all of you, I was shaken that this could take place in a modern, contemporary Australia. In some ways, I still can’t believe it happened. I am prone to want to move on from terrible news, but this is something that we can’t leave behind. Some things we can’t and should not forget. The stakes are too high for our country - this land of the fair go. Whilst gentiles like me were killed, the target was Sydney’s Jews. Horrifyingly, antisemitism has re-emerged as an ancient evil in Australia in 2026.

I spoke of Jesus as the model for our lives just before. Jesus was a Jew and our Catholic faith calls us to confront the evil that is antisemitism. Antisemitism - the hatred of the Jewish race – comes from many sources. In the case of the Bondi pogrom, it was radicals with an Islamic State flag on their vehicle who perpetrated murder through perversion of their religion into disordered fundamentalism. But this is but one source, and antisemites can be found in other parts of our community. In fundamentalist religious communities but also in the political extremes. Witness the neo-Nazi fascist who spewed vile antisemitic lies at a rally on Australia Day this week.

As our community is in a period of disruption with social agitation more common, my warning to you today is to be careful to whose mast you tie your colours. Those who exist on the extremes may have a cause that you are drawn to but be careful of what exists beneath or as a part of that movement.

Riverview is a Jesuit school, and we encourage you to think for yourself. Independent thought is more vital than ever if you want to be a ‘man for others’. Our Year 12s have chosen ‘United through Diversity’ as the Student Motto in 2026. It is good motto because whilst it recognises our differences, it does so within the context of our common beliefs as a Jesuit school community. The ties that bind.

We are at a time when Australians also need to decide what are the common beliefs that define our people. What it means to be an Australian. What is good and true about us. And how we will ensure that the tragedy of Bondi does not happen again in our times.

Gentlemen, I wish you all the best in 2026 at Saint Ignatius’ College Riverview. Go well.