Jenny Ware (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise, as many others have in this place today, to pay my respects to the member for Dunkley, Peta Murphy. I first offer my deepest sympathies to Peta's husband, Rod, her immediately family, her friends, her Labor family, her colleagues, her staff and Peta's community of Dunkley. Peta has been taken from all of you—from all of us—far too early. There have been many outstanding tributes made to Peta today, and I particularly mention the speeches of the member for Gorton, the member for Jagajaga, the member for Gippsland, the member for Canberra and the member for Riverina.

Peta Murphy was an extraordinary woman, an immense intellect, a sparkling smile, a tireless advocate for social justice and one of the most courageous people I have ever met. Peta was a proud feminist, a warrior for women's equality, and it was entirely fitting that she was the first woman to represent Dunkley, the seat named after Louise Dunkley, a pioneering trade unionist woman, who is credited with achieving an equal pay provision in the Public Service Act of 1902.

Before entering politics, Peta had a very successful career as a lawyer, including at the bar, but felt that the best way she could continue to advocate for her commitment to her causes of social justice and equity, to reform national systems and institutions, was as a federal parliamentarian. She was extremely determined to pursue this path after unsuccessfully contesting the seat of Dunkley in 2016. She returned in 2019 and won the seat against the odds and against the margins.

She used her first speech in this place to speak about those issues that were most important to her. She said parliament is a place where ideas should be 'contested with passion'. She spoke about gender disparity, about the importance of educational opportunity to break the cycle of disadvantage and dysfunction, about the fact 'cancer really sucks'—and I will return to that. Mostly though, she spoke about her community of Dunkley. She was immersed in that community, and it was reflected in many of the 90-second and three-minute speeches she gave in this place. If she was not extolling the virtues of squash or recognising one of our national women's sporting teams or heckling us, she recognised her community.

Peta gave her first speech two weeks after being told that the breast cancer she had battled for many years had returned. She confirmed, 'Cancer really sucks'. She used her experience to speak as often as she could in this place about women's health. She issued press releases imploring women to check their breasts. In her first term she co-chaired the Parliamentary Friends of Women's Health, which she continued in this term with the member for Bass. Particularly, she wanted to raise awareness about metastatic breast cancer, advocating for better treatment, services and support. Even last week, when Peta was in this place and clearly very unwell, she travelled down here to advocate with Breast Cancer Network Australia for a national registry for metastatic cancer patients.

Too many patients of both cancer and other diseases try to fight the diseases alone and in silence. Peta did the opposite, announcing in her first speech that she was neither 'unique nor alone' in the fight she was about to take on. Cancer really sucks. And in this era and in the role that we have here, where far too much attention is put on women's appearances—our clothes, our make-up, our hair—Peta chose, through refusing to wear a wig or any other headgear, to make an impactful statement about the side-effects of cancer treatment. Cancer really sucks. In this place, where she made so many commanding speeches, this was, to my mind, probably her most powerful non-verbal speech.

I got to know Peta through her chairing of the social policy and legal affairs committee. Her leadership on the inquiry we completed into online gambling and the impacts of advertising, particularly on children, was inspirational. This showed both her legal and parliamentary skills at their best. Her probing of evidence, her inquisitorial abilities while remaining at all times highly professional as the chair and respectful of each witness: this ensured that we on that committee were able to produce a report that is intended to frame government policy on online gambling advertising into the future and for the betterment of Australians. Peta demonstrated, through her stewardship of that committee, her resolute determination to do what she could in the short term and in the short time she had in this place to improve lives for Australian women, children and families.

We often spoke, before and after committee meetings, around things that were happening in parliament and about issues relevant to the committee, and what we found, as we often do when we reach out to others across this chamber, was that we had quite a lot in common. We both have parents called Rob or Bob and Jan, we share a devotion to our dogs and we also often talked sport, especially women's sport. I didn't share Peta's intense passion for squash, nor her talent for squash; however, we often spoke about baseball and our shared devotion for softball. As lawyers, we often spoke about some of the bigger legal challenges facing us as a nation and how working together, across the chamber, within the committee, we could work to improve our country. We disagreed on issues, certainly; but we found overall that we agreed most of the time, and a lot more than we disagreed. Often in the Federation Chamber, she would be speaking on women's health issues and a lot of the time I would be as well. I will say this in terms of continuing her legacy: I think there are many of us in this place now that will continue to advocate for breast cancer and for all forms of women's health.

In her first speech, Peta stated she would like to leave 'Australian politics—Australian democracy—in better shape than when I joined it.' She did that and far more. Vale, Peta Murphy.

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