Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to pay tribute to a well-loved local who passed away in late March, aged only 48. Jose Antonio Alvarez was a dearly-beloved member of the Mount Druitt Labor Party and was very active in our local branches. They will feel his loss greatly. Jose was of Spanish descent. He came to Australia while he was very young and made a strong contribution to our country. He suffered with his own challenges, but he was an example of a person who did not let mental illness stop him from making a huge contribution to his community in a wide variety of ways. He said little, he thought deeply, he acted a lot. These are the things that I admired about Jose. He was quietly determined but also had a very strong competitive streak. He refused to let the challenges of life stop him from giving the best of himself to those worse off, to those people in need or to causes he felt strongly about. His quiet nature changed when it came to politics, though. He was always up for a debate, fiercely defending Labor values in any argument.

Jose was a member of Calvary Chapel Bidwill Outreach Centre church and volunteered consistently at its outreach program from Mondays to Saturdays for seven years. He would spend time with local youth that came through the outreach. He would play his favourite game, chess, or chequers or ping-pong with whatever kids came through the door. Some young people bought their hard maths homework to him for help, as well. His quiet confidence and intelligence attracted young people who might not otherwise be comfortable around rowdy crowds.

Jose finished a Bachelor of Accounting and was progressing through a Masters of Accounting. He plied his trade as the bookkeeper for his church and for others. His church pastor, Al Cifelli, knew Jose for over 24 years and remembers him very fondly. Pastor Cifelli said, 'We were honoured to be his friend. Not only that, he was family to us.' Pastor Cifelli also recounted a story where Jose defended Mt Druitt from becoming the butt end of a world record. The second-best chess player in Australia once came to Mt Druitt with the intention of easily beating 50 players faster than it had even been done before. But Jose had plans of his own and he held his own long enough to dent the time and prevent the record from being broken. He felt devastated about impacting on the world record, but he felt a quiet pride about defending Mt Druitt's honour.

In 2009, Jose moved back home and became his mother's carer. He held her in high regard and they built an especially deep bond while he was caring for her. Jose was the Vice President of the Mt Druitt Labor branch until last year and was an energetic supporter of so many of us in the area. I have stood with him at railway stations in bitter cold and in early morning heat. He was always willing to help out. I was so grateful for the assistance he extended. He was always putting her shoulder to the wheel and was one of those unseen heroes. While we said goodbye to him on Saturday he will never be forgotten. He will be a part of our local area for many years to come, because our memories will always serve to honour what he has done for us.

Another person I wanted to honour is someone who lost his life last year. We have many talented and creative people using new technology to change how we communicate and to challenge the way we look at things by turning innovative ideas into reality. When I think of that type of person I think of someone like Leslie Nasser. Leslie used digital innovation to make the world a more interesting place. He was known for his satirical column at Crikey, and founded and managed TweeVee TV, which moderated tweets for the live broadcast of the ABC's Q&A program. In fact, Q&A executive producer Pete McEvoy described Leslie as the 'engineering genius behind Q&A'. When Twitter took up the Q&A hashtag, traditional media followed suit with their own versions. So he was a trailblazer. For ABC radio he was stubborn in his insistence that specialty content should be made available to all Australians on demand and then added the means to produce podcasts. The social media operations he developed for Victoria Police became the standard model for online dispatches. In his time at digital agency Razorfish, Leslie produced building-scale art projects such as helping Samsung stream their projects on the sails of the iconic Opera House.

He made his home in Idaho with his US-born wife and three daughters and from there he ran his own business, Wrangling Cats. But, unfortunately, in October last year he died when hit by a car while out walking with two of his three daughters. Leslie, you will not be forgotten. Thank you for the laughs, thank you for the memories and thank you for your pioneering spirit.