Mr HOWARD (Prime Minister)(2.00 p.m.) —I move:

That this House records its deep sadness at the death, on 5 September 1997, of Mother Teresa, the former head of the Missionaries of Charity and expresses its deep sympathy to the members of the Society of the Missionaries of Charity order and the people of India in their bereavement, and requests that this motion be conveyed by the Speaker on behalf of the House to the Government of India, the Holy See and to Sister Nirmala Joshi, the Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity.

When I learned of the death of Mother Teresa, I said that I could think of no-one in my life who more completely exemplified the Christian ideal of sacrifice and service than the late Mother Teresa. It really is, in a condolence motion such as this, difficult to summon appropriate words to accurately, fulsomely and appropriately describe the life of someone who, in all but title, is undeniably a saint.

Mother Teresa was a woman who dedicated her entire life to looking after the poor, the sick, the wretched, the abandoned, the ignored and the neglected who were in the most appalling physical condition.

The whole world mourned the passing of Mother Teresa. Her legendary work touched the lives of many thousands of people and she was an inspiration to millions around the world. Her work, of course, went beyond the admiration and the boundaries of world Catholicism, but she was, without question, a shining demonstration of Catholic life and a person who brought immense pride and immense dignity to the Catholic Church throughout the world. Many have remarked that perhaps no person this century has made a greater contribution to Catholic life in its purest form than Mother Teresa.

One of the great virtues of Mother Teresa was the consistency with which she valued human life. She gave voice, she gave hope and she gave comfort to the most downtrodden people in the world: the orphans, the lepers, those suffering from terminal illnesses, AIDS sufferers, battered women, drug addicts and the unborn. Her valiance was in fighting for the very sanctity of human life as she saw it. She drew no distinction between the standard of one life and another, yet deeply valued the individual quality of every human life she encountered.

What set her apart from many who perform great works was that she chose the way of life from which many were perceived to suffer. For her, poverty was her chosen way of life, that she might be closer to those she served and to the God that she sought to serve throughout her entire life.

Added to her vows that the religious take of poverty, chastity and obedience was Mother Teresa's promise of wholehearted, free service to the poorest of the poor. It can truly be said that her life confirmed the scripture passage of Matthew 19:30:

But many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first.

As we mark the life of Mother Teresa and as we pay tribute to her tremendous years of service and the great model that she was of Christian commitment, I think it is also an opportunity to pay tribute to those who seek to serve their God in religious vocations. Theirs is a unique, a very special and a very valuable lifestyle, and those who have chosen religious vocations have contributed enormously to the development of Australia and have, in their different ways, moulded the lives and the attitudes of millions of Australians over the years.

As we mark her death, as we thank God for her life and as we pay tribute to the tremendous Christian service of her life, I think it is also—in a representative sense—an opportunity to pay tribute to the religious and to those who seek a religious vocation.

Mother Teresa was born in 1910 of Albanian parents at Skopje in central Europe. She was just 17 when she travelled to Ireland to join the Sisters of Loreto and, after staying in Dublin for less than a year, she was posted to the Loreto Convent in the city of Darjeeling in north-east India. She became the principal of St Mary's, a school for girls, and stayed there for 19 years. It was during this period that she took the name of `Teresa', after Little Teresa of Lisieux.

The year 1946 was a turning point in this most remarkable life when she decided to leave the convent and live among the poor. It took two years but Mother Teresa, undaunted, was finally granted permission to live as an independent nun in 1948. The following year she became an Indian citizen. She opened her first school in the slums of Calcutta in 1949—almost 50 years ago. From these humble beginnings, her work and her simple message have been heard around the world.

Officially recognised by Rome as the Society of the Missionaries of Charity in 1950, the organisation she founded now has 45 houses in more than 100 countries, including Australia. Her order has opened schools, orphanages, hospices for the dying and hostels for those afflicted with leprosy or AIDS. She has won many international recognitions, including the Order of Australia. She will be remembered by Australians because of her Missionaries of Charity order, which has established missions in Sydney, Melbourne, Queanbeyan, Bourke, Orange, Dareton, Wagga Wagga, Tennant Creek, Katherine and Darwin. She visited Australia half a dozen times and, in January 1982, she was appointed an Honorary Companion in the Order of Australia for services to the Australian community and to humanity at large.

Mother Teresa was, in all senses of the word, a remarkable human being. She dedicated her life to the service and to the caring of others. She lived out the Christian ideal in a way that none of us in this House could ever hope to do. She was a shining example that faith, individual commitment and personal sacrifice in the service of others can still be the most powerful force in the world and can do more to ennoble individuals and the human race than any other kind of endeavour.

On behalf of those within the government, on behalf of all the members of this parliament and indeed on behalf of the broader Australian community we pay tribute to a wonderful woman, a true servant of the God that she loved throughout her entire life, a person whose entire being was dedicated to the service of suffering humanity and somebody who, in all but name, is in every sense of the word a true saint.