Josh Wilson (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to say a few words in celebration of the life and activism of Cathy Hall, an influential and irrepressible member of the Fremantle community. It is true to say that in the last three or four decades there has been no area of community wellbeing to which Cathy has not applied wholehearted effort. She worked as a nurse at Fremantle Hospital. She served as a member and office bearer for critical organisations like the Fremantle Society and the Fremantle Historical Society. She put her heart and soul into causes and entities as varied as Deckchair Theatre, stopping Roe 8 and the One Stop Shop for over-55s. She fought for environmental protection, for refugee rights and for the health of Fremantle's arts and cultural scene. She was arrested more than once protesting on the urgent need for climate change action. In 2012, Cathy was awarded the Premier's Active Citizenship Award for her outstanding community service.

I'm one of the many people who benefited from Cathy's encouragement on various issues, which she often delivered with a big smile, and occasionally with flinty-eyed insistence. Steve Grant, with whom Cathy organised the South Fremantle Kite Festival, was spot-on when he wrote in the Freo Herald this most recent weekend that Cathy 'will be remembered most for her tireless love of Fremantle and its community,' and for always fighting for what she knew was right.

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