I was born in Wagga Wagga and grew up in Nowra before moving to Wollongong, where I spent a large part of my life. I was ordained in 1973. When I was younger, I had a lovely Irish priest at our parish. He was a crusty old man who had a great love of people, and his faith was something marvellous. I found out he was very generous to the poor in the area, something no-one would have known. That set a very good example for me. During the Royal Commission I was a chaplain at Berrima Gaol. The thing that I realised there was that some really good men ended up in jail, and I wondered whether that was as much of a reflection on the community as it was on the men themselves. They may not have been innocent, but they had the right to be supported.

While in Moss Vale I was acquainted with Father Jim Boland, who I met again when I moved to Wollongong. I had been involved with a number of parishes during that time, including Corrimal, West Wollongong and Fairy Meadow. However, I was really impressed with the work Father Boland did and through him I became an honorary chaplain, before taking over his role of senior police chaplain once he retired. Being a police chaplain is a varied sort of thing. We are involved in critical incidents and emergencies, with a huge part of the role just walking with people, listening to them and trying to be aware of what they need in the immediate circumstances. Sometimes that can be as simple as recognising they need to be fed and watered. We make sure they are aware of that, as well as being aware of the emotion that is happening. We also sit down with police officers who have been involved in shootings or Taser incidents and follow through on how they are dealing with that. We are involved in a lot of the ceremonial things, such as police remembrance days and, sadly, a lot of police funerals. This week alone has seen daily trips to the hospital to check on an officer who is dealing with cancer. However, we are also involved in more joyous events, too, such as weddings and baptisms.

Part of the role as senior chaplain is educating the other chaplains to administer preventative care. Teaching them to notice when a police officer is not dealing so well and if someone runs foul of the system, we support them through that and sometimes advocate on their behalf. There are five full-time chaplains and 100 honorary chaplains. It is my job to make sure that spaces are filled across the state. I'm not sure I deserved the Commissioner's Commendation Award any more than any of the police officers. We understand the police as people who can fine us and miss the quality of the people they are. I have only been full time for six years and these guys have been around for decades. They are the people who give the good example, the difference is that I often get seen doing my job. In fairness, though, the award is a good statement about our chaplains and they deserve to be recognised. The hardest part of the job is when you are walking with someone and you know they are in real pain and all you can do is walk with them. All you can do is empathise with their pain.

We had a number of chaplains involved in the Lindt cafe siege in December, including myself. We helped two female police officers who were looking after the families of the hostages. It was about listening to the families and being aware of their fatigue. We checked in with the officers once everything was over and helped them to recognise the good job that they did. Not all officers involved were particularly trained for the situation they were in, but somebody had to do it and they picked very good people for that. And that's what you expect from them, to work beyond what they normally do.