Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

There have been outstanding tributes today that have celebrated the accomplishments and achievements of Peta Murphy, of which there are many. She was extraordinary, hardworking and driven, but she was also a wonderful friend, and that is what I will miss most. So here is just a bit of what it was like to be friends with our Murph.

Peta was, in one way, pushed into being friends with me. As we both entered the parliament in 2019, we were both assigned roles on an internal Labor Party committee. Unreflective of our skills or life experience, I was given the role of the chair and Murphy was stuck being the secretary of the committee. We both figured out quickly that neither of us knew anything about what happens at an internal Labor Party committee, let alone how to make it function, and so began the friendship. We were teammates, figuring out how to control a roomful of our colleagues.

The moment I think Peta warmed to me was at the end of the first meeting. I had confessed to Peta that I had googled how to chair a meeting and it came up with suggestions like 'speak slowly and calmly so that people think you know what you are doing.' Peta, with all her professional achievements and acumen could have ridiculed me, but she never did. She smiled and said, 'That's quite helpful, actually,' and she would try and speak slowly and calmly at her next meeting, because that was Peta. She enjoyed playing the role of the humble friend.

After one such meeting I received a text message from Peta that said: 'Hey, I appear to have put my notebook with the minutes from the previous meeting somewhere safe that I can't remember. Did you happen to take notes of the attendance?' I, of course, did not. It was a seamless operation!

Canberra was just better with Peta. She made it fun and loved to make her friends laugh with her characteristic cheek. As new MPs, we were able to select art for our offices here in Canberra. It's one of the more exciting privileges discussed in the class of 2019. In fact, we decided to do an art tour when all of our art had arrived in each of our offices. We agreed that each MP would talk about the different pieces that they had chosen and provide each other with some food and beverage. The art was fantastic, and the refreshments were flowing. Peta served us some gin and began her tour.

Under the regulations, backbenchers get to pick four pieces of art to the wall and one sculpture. Peta's wall art was very impressive, although she confessed she didn't really pay attention to the sculpture bit. So there, in the corner of her office, were some colourful bowls that Peta turned to. In classic Murphy style, she said: 'Yes, I'm not really sure what these are about. They kind of look like they're from Kmart, and I can't even use them to eat the cereal in the morning.' I don't remember much of the art from that night, but I always enjoyed walking into her office and seeing her Kmart bowls perched proudly in the corner. And to walk into Peta's office was to be greeted with the biggest wall of Dunkley and Peta that you could possibly imagine. Every square inch of her wall was filled with Peta, dancing and smiling with her arms around the people that she absolutely loved representing.

Peta was a great parliamentarian, and was usually the smartest person in any room she entered. With all her wit and skill, it was her values and what she stood for that shone the brightest. After practising law, she wanted to write laws to elevate the living standards of Australians. She cared about their rights. Peta recently joined the Human Rights Committee because she wanted to participate in an inquiry looking into the human rights framework in Australia. She wanted to enshrine rights that would protect everyday people, including social and economic rights, in the finest of Labor traditions. She wanted to ensure that people had adequate housing and living conditions. That's why she was in this place. In her first speech she said she wanted to be part of the first generation to end poverty, and that she wanted to introduce a federal bill of rights so the complex, important, national debates can occur within a comprehensive national human rights framework.

Reminiscing with the committee secretariat about her short time on our committee, it was put to me by the Secretariat that she was brilliant. The secretariat said that she asked brilliant and insightful questions that led to quality evidence being collected by the committee. I'm very sorry Peta won't finish the inquiry or be in the political trenches putting forward her ideas and arguments to pursue this policy agenda. She would have loved every little bit of it. It's totally unfair that someone who loved and understood the complexities of this place was taken from it while there was so much more she could have achieved. I hope can make her proud by continuing the work she started, ensuring that her vision for a more equitable and just Australia lives on in the work we do.

If you imagine what sort of person you would want your daughter to look up to, it would be Peta Murphy. She was smart, principled and tough as they come, all wrapped up in a ball of cheekiness, kindness and fun. She was one of the people that made Canberra feel a little bit like home. Murph, to me, was always kind and always complimentary, and she always liked to take the seriousness out of the moment. She was a true friend, and even launched my campaign in 2022. Despite working together, mostly what I will miss is just hanging out in her office, usually with Thwaitesy, the member for Jagajaga, sitting on the couch next to us, chatting about all the bizarre and occasionally amazing things that were going on around us.

Peta Murphy: a warrior, a rock star, a bit of a dork and the best squash player to ever set foot in the Australian parliament. I send all my love to her incredible husband, Rod, someone who meant the entire world to Peta. Vale, Peta Murphy. We're very proud of you and we'll miss you very much.

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