It was another fantastic afternoon at the Old Paradians’ Association Monthly Luncheon.

After recently celebrating his 80^th birthday, Pat Mount (1962) welcomed the 50 attendees to an afternoon of great company, delightful food and engaging speakers.

It was great to hear from Brendan Considine. The Considine name is synonymous with the Old Paradians Football Club. Brendan, son of the great Maurie Considine, is the CEO of Secon Freight Logistics, he and his family are major supporters and donors to St Vincent de Paul Society Victoria. Brendan spoke of the Vinnies CEO sleepout that will happen on June 19^th, an event where CEO’s and leaders across the country will spend the night under the stars. As proud ambassadors of the event, Team Secon will participate again this year. The sleepout encourages fundraising and awareness for people experiencing homelessness, an event close to the Considine’s hearts.

For more information about the event, you can visit the CEO sleepout website here.

To make a donation to Team Secon and help them reach their goal to raise $50,000, please visit the donation page on the CEO sleepout website here.

Pat Mount announced that the luncheon group is proud to be able to support the event by making a donation.

After the main meal, Professor John Tobin (1986) captivated our audience with his professional experience and a look into the challenges in the human rights law space.

John was an outstanding student at the College concluding his time as College Captain in 1986.

He was accepted into the University of Melbourne to study law which began a long and distinguished career.

John holds the Francine V McNiff Chair in International Human Rights Law in the Melbourne Law School at the University of Melbourne where he is Director of Studies for the Human Rights Program in the Master of Laws and Co-Director of Research in Human Rights within the Institute for International Law and the Humanities.

His research interests cover the broad field of international human rights law but he has a particular interest in children's rights and the right to health.

John holds the Francine V McNiff Chair in International Human Rights Law in the Melbourne Law School at the University of Melbourne. His impressive resume includes a Teaching Excellence Award and multiple nominations. A visiting professor in many countries, he is highly regarded around the world.

John began by reflecting on his education with Parade College, and the application of the Edmund Rice ethos, promoting a moral values system that contributes to the good of society as a whole, and stated, that by being exposed to these values, he learnt that “how you treat people matters the most.” Driven by the idea of the Edmund Rice legacy, he asked himself, “what can I do with my law degree to make a difference.”

He began working in Commercial Law and felt it wasn’t for him, a few years later, he made the move to work in Legal Aid and after working with children that were in trouble with the law, he described this as “an eye opener!” This is where he found himself drawn to human rights.

John linked his presentation to the work that Brendan and his team at Secon are doing to support the CEO sleepout, he shared some startling statistics around the rising inequality around the world.

“700 million people live in extreme poverty, they have less than $2.15 per day.”

“In Australia, we have 1 in 6 children living in poverty.”

John’s engaging presentation continued to detail serious challenges in international law.

He was able to reflect and express his pride in current OPA President and 2017 Parade College Captain, Michael Donato, who he has mentored for the past few years.

At the conclusion of the presentation, many questions were asked from the floor resulting in a great discussion around the role of teaching staff to support individual needs of students.

It was also great to see a reunion taking place with current Mathematics Teacher, Leanne Thomas, John Ramsdale (1965), Joe Marchio and Honorary Old Paradian John Joss, all fellow teachers from the 80s and 90s expressing their pleasure of teaching John.

We look forward to the next luncheon on Wednesday the 9^th of July, to book, click here.