Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the Prime Minister for his fine words and his genuine sentiment with regard to farewelling our dear friend and colleague Senator Alex Gallacher. It's more than a year and a half since Alex was diagnosed with lung cancer, and we're deeply saddened that this was a battle that could be fought but, in the end, not won. Alex carried on fighting for his fellow Australians as he dealt with the realities of this illness. That's the sort of man that he was. Senator Don Farrell told me when he spoke to me last week that the end was near, that Alex wanted to stay as a senator till his final days.

Indeed, Australia won something of a lottery in 1966 when the young Alex and his parents left their native Scotland and headed for our shores. It must be said that the Labor Party and the trade union movement have enjoyed a pretty good track record when it comes to Scottish imports, and Alex was a prime example. By the time he arrived in parliament he'd spent many years as a labourer, a truck driver and a ramp services operator at Trans Australia Airlines. He joined Labor in Darwin in 1988, when he also began to work for his beloved Transport Workers Union. He eventually became secretary of the South Australian/Northern Territory branch and ascended to vice-president and then president of the national Transport Workers Union.

Alex stood up consistently and passionately for the rights of his fellow Australians at work and for their right to come home safely from work. There was no stronger advocate of safe rates than Alex Gallacher. It was his driving energy as a trade unionist, and he carried it burning brightly with him when he became one of Labor's senators for South Australia in 2010. As South Australia's Labor leader, Peter Malinauskas, so rightly put it yesterday, 'transport workers could hardly have had a better friend, ally and advocate in the Australian parliament'.

If there was even a flimsy chance that Alex would get carried away by his transition to high office it was nipped in the bud by his aunts Doris and Mattie. Their advice, which could have been given that extra bit of gravity by their Scottish accents, was: 'Don't get too big for your boots!' As Alex said in his first speech to the Senate, it was advice that he intended to heed. And he did. In that same speech he charted a clear course for his parliamentary career as he outlined his priority interests—the transport industry, road safety and superannuation. What he then said gave a perfect insight into the character of the man. He said this:

I have been involved in the transport industry all my life. In my humble opinion, there is no better place to work. There is no smoke and mirrors, just plain-talking, hardworking employees and employers alike in a tough, competitive industry which works harder than most people imagine and continues to work while most people are asleep.

In this time of the pandemic, those words echo never more truly than today.

Alex was an exemplar of the enduring bond between the Australian Labor Party, the mighty trade union movement and the shop floor. His life was an act of dedication to the interests of working people, and as you'd expect from a man who knew so well the rumble of the road beneath him, his particular love for the transport sector and those who worked in it never, ever wavered. It was a love that sometimes manifested itself in surprising ways, such as that time he had a crucial cameo on the SBS reality show Marry Me Marry My Family. It was a wedding in Nairobi negotiating the dowry on behalf of a young truck driver, who was the son of an old friend. After what was described as a pretty hectic two hours of talks, an agreement was reached and the wedding was a great success. As a microcosm of the Alex Gallacher approach to life, it was perfect—tenacity, determination, loyalty, love. Look back over Alex's long and considerable record and you will see all those qualities and energies working together. You see them in the way he defended workers' rights and conditions. He fought against WorkChoices and, understanding that a decent working life must include dignity in retirement, he was tireless in his efforts to protect and bolster universal superannuation. Again, if we turn back to his first speech we find he moved almost to poetry on the power of superannuation. He said:

In order to take advantage of what Einstein referred to as the eighth wonder of the world, compound interest, young people need to be educated, preferably at school.

During his time with cancer he was a champion of the workers who are getting us through the pandemic. The thought that Alex won't be here with us when we emerge is a poignant one. The Labor family appreciates the kindness from across the aisle, from the Prime Minister and from others who have reached out to offer their condolences, among them, finance minister Birmingham's touching farewell to his fellow senator in which he said:

A straight shooter, you always knew what Alex believed and where he stood.

On that note, I would like to turn to the words of Alex's good mate, his Canberra flatmate and fellow truckie, Senator Glenn Sterle, who for so long served alongside him on the Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Committee. As Sterlie put it:

I would like to blame Albo, the leadership team and all the shadow ministers for not taking Alex's advice on each and every issue that mattered to him. This would leave me copping an Alex sermon every night in our Canberra unit over a wine or three as to how he saw the world and how it should be and what I needed to do to get people thinking his way.

He described the annual duty at the Senate Christmas barbecue, which I had the privilege of attending for a number of years. He said: 'We were clearly instructed each and every year not to cook the vegan patties amongst the sausages and steaks. Now Alex couldn't quite grasp our instructions that the vegan burgers had to be kept separate. He said they needed to be cooked with the good stuff or they had no flavour. Sorry, comrades; I tried, but you could not argue with Alex when he had a set of extra-large tongs in his right hand. Alex reckoned if he hadn't had meat at least twice a day he was feeling like a vegetarian. Old school was Senator Alex Gallacher.

Senator Sterle also reminds us of another side that is an insight into the gentleness beneath that gruff exterior of his character. When Alex was tasked to be on the NDIS committee his first response was, 'What do I know about people living with disabilities?' but, as was consistent with Alex, he wanted to know more. This led to him employing a lady in Adelaide who was confined to a wheelchair so he could hear firsthand her experiences and challenges living with a disability and how the NDIS assisted her. What a great story.

Alex's colleague in the Senate and fellow TW giant, Tony Sheldon, told me a story that epitomises Alex's twin traits of humility and great pride in the men and women he represented. When approached in recent months by the South Australian branch of the TWU for his blessing to have them name a refurbished and expanded training room after him, Alex gave a typically laconic and self-facing response: 'You've got to be kidding me. Don't waste your time'—and, yes, that quote is missing a couple of unparliamentary words!

However, branch secretary Ian Smith was determined to prevail, and the move was endorsed at the next rank-and-file branch committee management meeting. Once Alex knew it had the overwhelming endorsement of the membership, he quietly let it be known that he was inordinately proud of the honour. Thus was born the Alex Gallacher training centre at the TWU South Australian branch office in Adelaide.

Alex may be gone, but we're surrounded by all the good that flowed from his principles, his passion and, crucially, his actions. In the words of his good friend Senator Marielle Smith, 'Over the years I knew him, I came across countless people for whom he had a life-changing impact.' As we share our memories of him, we are reminded of why we are here: to make a difference, and that is what Alex did.

Alex came to Australia with his family in search of a better life, but ultimately he helped make our country, Australia, better. In what proved to be his last speech to the Senate, in March, Alex was, unsurprisingly, fighting for workers, firing shots against the:

… national shame—that workers who carry this country, such as cleaners, garbagemen and all of the people who do all of those jobs we take for granted, are not getting a fair share of the national income.

Had things turned out differently, that's what he would have been doing today—fighting for workers, fighting particularly for the most vulnerable—because that's who he was. He told us so at the beginning. Indeed, Alex wrapped up that first speech with a Theodore Roosevelt quote:

Far and away the best prize life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.

Alex seized that prize with both hands, and we were all winners because of it. Our hearts go out to his wife, Paola, and to his family and his friends. May Alex rest in the peace of a job well done and a life so very well lived.

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