Matt Keogh (Burt, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

It's a sad week for this place as we farewell one of our own. Peta Murphy, the member for Dunkley, has been taken from us, from this earth, much too soon, but her legacy will live on. I would like to commend the speakers before me—and no doubt those who will speak after me—who knew Peta even better than I did on some of the tales they have shared and the insights into Peta's personality and the work they have done together, not just on my side of politics but across the chamber. That is a true testament to her and her work and also to the oft disregarded or overlooked shared humanity for all of us in this place.

Peta Murphy, as I knew her, was an absolute champion—and not just a champion at squash. She was a champion of ordinary people, making sure that everyone could have a better future. Peta was also an intellect. She was a great lawyer and a brilliant policy mind. I first got to know her when I was new to this place, and she was working as an advisor to the member for Gorton. I had the great honour of being able to spar with her on policy matters, to tease out amendments to legislation that we wanted to see changed in the law. I got to know her then, but then I had the honour of serving with her in this place as part of our Labor caucus.

Nobody could have ever doubted that her heart was in exactly the right place. She was passionately determined to get good results in everything that she did. That passion never wavered with her diagnosis. If anything, it only made her more driven. As many have noted, you only had to look to the last week when she made the trip up here to Canberra to launch the Breast Cancer Network of Australia's report Time to count people with metastatic breast cancer: a way forward. She made it to question time, and we saw her ask a question in the last week. If anything, it was almost a subterfuge to how she was feeling—that she was able to ask that question and participate in the parliamentary processes. But she didn't make it to being able to be part of launching that report. Of course, as she would say, that wasn't the important part. The work that she did going into that and also making sure the report was out—that was the important part. It represents a road map on how Australia can collect and report cancer stage and recurrence data. She saw the importance of that—to make sure that people living with the disease know that they're seen, that they are heard and that they are counted. Without that visibility, we can't plan to adequately meet their healthcare needs. In being involved with that, Peta was making a difference—not for her; she was making a difference and thinking of others right up until the very end.

When many people would've been looking inward, she was still fighting for what she believed in. As Peta said in her first speech, her diagnosis was 'the reminder that life can be fragile, and we'd better make the most of it.' And that's exactly what she did. Whether it was in an office, in a meeting, in this House, on the squash court or as we sweated through Zoom exercise classes hosted by the member for Macnamara during COVID lockdown from our respective houses and front yards, Peta brought a grin, a sense of humour to everything she did. She had almost an infectious smile, I'd say. She brought humanity to everything she did, and she was never backwards in coming forwards in any way. You always knew what she thought, and we all benefited from knowing what she thought.

In Peta's first speech she told the story of being asked to imagine what, at the end of her parliamentary career, she would like to be able to look back on and say she was proud to have been a part of. I think with everything that she's been a part of she has been able to set out what she tried to do and so she should absolutely be proud. She fought for her community. She fought for our country and everyone in it. She played a key role in reforming national systems and institutions, and that's a mission that we all share. But I know there was so much more that she wanted to do as well.

She will be sorely missed. I do want to pass on my deepest condolences to Peta's loved ones—to Rod, Bob, Jan, Jodi and Penni, to Bert and Ernie—and to all of those who've had the privilege of knowing her. I think we can all agree that we are better people for the influence that Peta has had on all of us. Vale Peta.

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