Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to acknowledge the comments made by the member for Hawke and his amazing partner, Zoe, who I know quite well, and their connection to Senator Linda White.

In reflecting on what I would say today, I couldn't help but remember all the times that I bumped into Linda in the Capel Street lift, the dodgy old lift that we had at North Melbourne. I worked then for the LHMU you and she was there visiting the ASU. They shared a building. The thing about that very slow lift is you can have some very good conversations quite quickly. Usually, it was a catch-up about the latest campaigns or what they were focused on but also quite often it was about the worry of actually working on the campaign internally in terms of the great work she was doing within the Labor Party.

What is challenging about this is that I just feel that we've lost such an opportunity with Linda passing. She was only a senator for the briefest of times and would have made such an enormous contribution not just to this place but to public policy and the Australian people. For the majority of her working life, she was a real activist, a campaign warrior, a feminist and someone who really fought for working people within her role when she was at Maurice Blackburn and then in her role at the ASU.

One of the things that I learned at her memorial was that she was so heavily involved in the arts. I knew she was interested, but to learn that about Linda also helped to really understand the full picture of her character and her capacity along with how funny she was as a person and how much of a joy she was to be around. I really feel for and want to acknowledge the grief that many of our ASU brothers and sisters are going through. That's the union that she worked with for many, many years, with the delegates, members, organisers and people that she campaigned with. She really turned rhetoric into action. She didn't just say, 'Women should be paid equally.' She made it happen. She worked with members and delegates. She worked on a campaign at a time when gender equality and pay equality were considered done. We were still at that place in the debate where we had equal pay laws and people thought the job was done, but that was not the reality. A lot of community sector workers were still paid much less than their male counterparts in equivalent-qualification positions. That's where the equal pay case really became a big campaign. It really helped revitalise the movement across Australia around gender pay and gender equality. Linda and her union, the ASU, were a big part of that.

I recall a meeting I had. I'd just been elected. And when you're a backbencher from Victoria and from the left, if Linda White asked for a meeting, you'd say, 'Yes; when do you need to meet with me?' That was partly so that you could have an opportunity to ask for Linda's advice on this place, knowing her history, experience and understanding to be better than a lot of people's, even though she wasn't yet a senator, but also partly for her advice, knowledge, experience and understanding around policy.

In those meetings, when she would bring members and delegates to speak, what always struck me about the ASU and their campaigns was that they were never just campaigning for themselves or their wages or their conditions; they were campaigning for all women. Their campaign around paid super on all hours worked, not just after earning $450 a month, was a real example of where they pushed for that campaign. They not only helped their members; they also helped every worker who earned a small amount of money that wasn't being paid super. That's the kind of leadership they show—

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 17:15 to 17:29

Linda was a warrior for women's super, and that continued in this place as well. For a long time she campaigned that we needed super on government paid parental leave. I wasn't surprised at all to hear her comments when they let her know that the government was about to make this decision. She said, 'It's about time.' That's the kind of person Linda was. She was like: 'Great. It's done. It's about time. What's next?'

She was always someone that was very true to her values and true to her idea of what was fair and right and just. That really was a big driver behind the campaign around gender equality. She didn't just do that for a lot of women working in her industries that she helped advance from low pay to very good pay, or for workers at Ansett and in the community services sector, in her role as assistant secretary of the ASU; she also did that for women in the Labor Party.

I know that other speakers on this condolence motion have really highlighted the effort that she made and the role that she played in changing our rules in the Labor Party so that we would reach our affirmative action targets. She was always very strong on this one. I can remember at every national conference when the women would get together and say, 'Right; what are we going for this time?' from the very early days. It was always about progressive change but having to hold the line. In those early days, there were formulas like 40-40-20—that is, 40 per cent women, 40 per cent men and 20 per cent it doesn't matter. It was always about setting goals, reaching that goal and moving to the next goal. As Linda said, it was about setting the goal and changing the culture, and that's what we did. By setting that goal, by setting that target, we created the space to make the challenge. If we hadn't, then we wouldn't be standing here today as a government with a majority of women. I think it is quite fitting that Linda helped to drive that change internally in the party.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 17:32 to 17:53

I'll try and speak quickly because we might have another division. The final remark I wanted to say about our friend Linda White was that she was that real driving force within Labor around making sure we did have women at the table, whether they be at the national executive table, at the admin table, in the internal party structures or here in parliament representing the broader Labor Party and our communities.

Quite often politicians and political parties get criticised for being faceless men or the backroom boys, and Linda was our answer to that. She served with distinction in these internal committees, and she was the honest broker. She was the one that made sure that we were being true to our values, and I really want to thank Linda for that. Her leadership, her work and the collective way that she helped bring women together—and she wasn't the only one—really helped make it possible for other women like me to even be considered and to be preselected.

When Linda was preselected to become a senator, it was a real case of merit. She had the runs on the board, and she was the most qualified person to be preselected to be our new senator in Victoria. When you're proposing that a big bear like Kim Carr is about to retire, you've got to have a pretty good name and a pretty good shortlist. I'll be really honest with you: there was only one name on the shortlist, and that was Linda White.

Vale, Linda White. You will be missed in a big way, not just in this place but in your union.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 17 : 53 to 18 : 21

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