Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Often it is not until a person is no longer with us and we then reflect back on their life that we appreciate how truly important their life was and the impact that they have made on the lives of so many others. Such was the case with Dr Rosemary Crowley, who left an extraordinary legacy when she passed away on 1 March.

Dr Crowley was a senator for South Australia between 1983 and 2002. She was, indeed, the 371st senator to come to this place and the 68th from South Australia. But, more importantly, she was the first woman Labor senator to come to this place and the first woman Labor senator to serve in the ministry. Interestingly, as others have already noted, throughout all of her time here, she was the only Labor woman senator in this place. It must have been a very different era in terms of the proceedings of this place, when you had so few women in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, for a woman to be a part of the parliament of Australia. Yet Rosemary did that and did that with an incredible amount of determination.

Perhaps her determination arose from her upbringing, which others have spoken about, and the fact that, throughout her own personal career, she served not only as a medical practitioner but as a tutor at Flinders Medical Centre, a lecturer in childbirth at the Mothers' and Babies' Health Association, a member of the mental health review tribunal from 1979 to 1983 and so on. Those kinds of roles, particularly when you're dealing with families, certainly shape the person that you become.

Interestingly, she came to this place after having to put up her own fight, which others have already spoken about. But as someone who can remember the 1980s in South Australia—and Rosemary was a member of the centre-left faction, which, at the time, had considerable influence—I can recall many of what I would call the 'internal factional fights' about who was going to get here, and I can well understand the comments made by Senator Chris Schacht, one of the speakers at the state memorial service that was held last Saturday in Adelaide, when he spoke about the challenges she faced in coming to this place.

When she came to this place, and even after, she went on to serve in many different roles that, in fact, are way too lengthy for me to list here. As I look at them, there are two full pages of different roles in which she served throughout her life, which just highlight two things: the level of interests she had as a person in this place and also the work determination that she pursued once she got here. She took the view that she was here, and that she was here to make a difference, and that's what drove her. She didn't waste her time here; she actually used it effectively from the day she got here.

When I listened to the many comments from both her family members and other personal friends, including Chris Schacht, who himself is a former senator, and Barbara Weise, who served as a member of the Legislative Council in South Australia and who herself was also a trailblazer—and we also heard from Kathryn Harby Williams, who is a legend in her own right because of her netball career—it was clear that Rosemary's influence extended so far throughout the community. It was an influence that others have spoken about, particularly in terms of pursuing what we refer to as 'women's issues'—issues that, at the time when she came to this place, were not even on the agenda, yet she put them on the agenda, against considerable resistance. In doing so, just with that dogged determination, she ultimately ensured that the matters that she was raising were noted by this parliament and by the Labor Party itself, and ultimately she won the day on most of the issues she would raise.

I thought that the memorial service was incredibly interesting, in that we not only heard from her family members; we heard about a woman who, apart from her public life, was an incredible mother as well. You could just sense in the comments made by both her son and her grandchildren that she was someone who valued her family as much as she valued everything else in life.

But she was also—and I have to say this surprised me a little, because I knew Rosemary. I didn't know her well, but I met her on several occasions and I certainly came to the view very early on that she was a formidable person, someone that you needed to take seriously because she was—how can I say it?—a very strong person in pushing the views she had. But she was a person who also loved life in every sense of the word. It seems to me that I don't know too many people—when you look at the list of things that she did in her life, in terms of her fitness interest, her love for the environment, her love for music et cetera, it just seems that she loved life in every sense of the word.

But she also was a person who knew that things had to change. One of the things that I certainly appreciated was the fact that, when she was elected to this place, one of the first thing she did was go to Pine Gap to support the women at Pine Gap who were protesting against the arms race and the establishment of Pine Gap up there. This, in the day, was probably not something that you might've thought others would do, but Rosemary did it because she believed in it. Again, in my view, it just highlighted the character of the person.

I thought the memorial service on Saturday was very fitting, and I say that as I reflect back on her achievements and life, which is something that, before Saturday, I perhaps might not have even given a thought to. But after listening to the different speakers, it became clear it was very deserved. But I think it also inspired other people.

I have to say that, at the memorial service, which Senate leader Penny Wong MCed, Penny gave a very personal and wonderful tribute to Dr Rosemary Crowley. I thought Penny's comments about Rosemary were wonderful in terms of highlighting the respect that Penny had for her and the influence that Rosemary had on Penny herself, who, as we all know, has now become a leader in her own right. But it was fitting when we also heard from all of the others. When you put it all together, you realise that she was someone who deserved all of the accolades that have been said about her.

When she retired from this place, she didn't retire from her pursuit of the matters that were important to her. The Rann government in South Australia appointed her to several roles, where she continued to work to make changes in family matters, health care and social justice more broadly. In fact, it was really the social justice and environmental areas where I think most of her work was focused.

I'm glad I was able to get to the memorial service on Saturday. It was so well done and such a fitting tribute to a person who made so much difference to the lives of so many people but, even more so, so much difference to the direction that this country has taken as a result of her being there. My condolences to each and every one of her family members and close friends, who, I know, will miss her dearly. I thank her for the contribution she made to Australia both in the time that she was in the Senate and throughout her life more broadly.

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