Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

[by video link] I start by acknowledging the heartfelt words of the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and the Deputy Prime Minister. It's fair to say that Alex could be a little cantankerous. If you were looking to get a warm hug on first meeting Alex Gallacher, you had definitely come to the wrong place. David Feeney would say of Alex that he was his favourite grump. His manner of speaking was the precise opposite of attention seeking. His quiet, low, mumbly drawl actually required you to listen just a bit harder, but when you did Alex always had something to say; he never left you wondering. He didn't like flowery verbiage. He always had a very clear opinion.

The truth is that Alex was slow to give his trust to people, but when he did he stuck, because Alex's view of human relations was not about winning a popularity context on any particular given day. Instead, he was focused on the quality and the longevity of the relationships which really mattered, and that's why there are a number of people who are serving or who have recently served in this parliament who are completely devoted to Alex Gallacher—Tony Sheldon, Don Farrell, David Feeney and, most particularly, Glenn Sterle—and my thoughts are very much with each of them today.

Alex knew who he was and where he came from. His first speech was a down-to-earth fanfare for the truck driver. He loved the transport industry and the people within it, including the employers but, most particularly, the transport workers that he represented throughout his life.

I first met Alex in 1994, when I started as the national legal officer at the TWU. At that point Alex was an organiser in the South Australian branch, albeit one who stood out from the rest. Within a couple of years, Alex was elected as the South Australian state secretary of the TWU. In the ensuing years, Alex and I both served on the federal committee of management of the TWU. If I'm being honest, having grown up and having been educated at Geelong Grammar School and then Melbourne Law School, coming to the TWU was something of a profound culture shock. People spoke their own language—literally. In any given sentence, the ratio of expletive to non-expletive words was at least one in three, which meant that for a long time I had no idea what anyone was actually saying. This might seem like an unlikely place to get an education in political philosophy, but for me that's exactly what happened.

Practical, pragmatic solutions for working people—that's what Alex was about; that's what they were all about. In the midst of that was an uncompromisingly clear goal: Did any given proposition advance the lives of transport workers? That's what drove Alex Gallacher. He hated identity politics. He couldn't give a stuff about what was popular or what was trendy. He didn't care about what people thought he should say. He was never looking for a cheer in any meeting that he spoke at in the union or later in politics. Because his goal, his sense of purpose, was so crystal clear, his life was deeply impactful in the union movement and then later here in parliament on the transport sector and on improving road safety in Australia.

Alex loved his family—his wife, Paola, his children and his grandchildren. He left this world sounded by a family and, indeed, a political family who completely loved him and were totally devoted to him. Really, that actually says more about Alex than anything else.

When we look to the great Labor figures of the past, we are reminded of Ben Chifley, who rose from being a train driver to the Prime Minister of our country. There are many who feel that Chifley's journey is a story confined to the past, but that is completely belied by the life of Alex Gallacher, who rose from being a truck driver to an Australian senator, participating in the governance of our country at the highest level in 2021. It would be true that our party room today is more diverse—there are more women and there are more graduates than there were back then—but I am enormously proud that Alex Gallacher's life is one that occurred in our movement, in the Labor movement. Alex's is a great story. He was a great man. He was a great friend and he will be sorely missed.

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