Matt Keogh (Burt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is nearly as much left on the cutting floor when preparing your first speech as an MP as there is that you can manage to fit in. I wish to rectify a small part of that on this first sitting day after the first anniversary of my Nanna's passing away. Rita and Peter Travers were completely integral to my and my siblings' upbringing, as clearly they were in that of my mum, Helen, and her sisters. Dadda, to me, was a lawyer and a Rotarian but most of all a teller of funny stories around the lunch or dinner table for family events. He went to law school with Bob Hawke and Ron Wilson, was part of founding the Parents and Friends Federation of Western Australia and was on the Labor state executive during the split. Dadda knew, though, that family always came first. Being a councillor would be the height of his political career, though he was always interested in it all.

My Dadda once came to my primary school with wig and gown as part of us learning about different careers, and I beamed with pride. When I was all of about 12, he took me to visit different courts. One of the trials we sat and watched was that of WA businessman and Chairman of Rothwells Laurie Connell. This clearly had an indelible subconscious impact, as not only did I end up pursuing a legal career, but I spent much of it prosecuting corporate and financial services crime.

Reete, or Reety, as Peter called her, my Nanna, was almost like a second mum to us older Keogh children, collecting us from school often or being the first port of call after our getting off the school bus. Nanna would also regularly cook dinner for the whole family, ready for when Mum picked us up after work or uni. We will now never know the secret ingredient that she included in her bolognese to make it taste so good. Nan used to maintain that, with a husband so interested in politics and current affairs and his whole family being the same, family meals would always be an animated and loud affair with forthright views flying across the table. She summed this up at one of their wedding anniversaries by saying that she had married into a family of 'table thumpers'. I am sure that my wife now feels the same way about the Keoghs.

People always warn you to make the most of the time that you have with your grandparents because you'll regret it if you don't, once they have gone. One of the hardest parts, though, was watching my Nanna slip into Alzheimer's. Not only was it something that I was never prepared for; it was something that I just had no comprehension of how to deal with and, I suspect, in a way was in denial about and avoiding.

After the last Anzac service I attended in 2016, a voicemail told me that Dadda had been into hospital and was very unwell, and everyone was meeting at the nursing home. By the time I returned the call, I learned that he had passed just 10 minutes earlier. This made my determination in the election campaign even stronger. My grandfather rallied the people in his nursing home to my cause during the Canning by-election and was the first person to donate to my campaign during the general election.

The day of my Dadda's funeral was a bittersweet one indeed. Some things just cannot be controlled, such as the timing of funerals and the timing of when the leader of your party is coming for a town hall event in your electorate. For me, these events coincided. The latter, I believe, was a huge success, and I have no doubt that it was in part due to my grandfather looking down sweetly on us all. I suspect Dadda was happy to enjoy a political career vicariously through me, so I was devastated that he was not able to see me have an election victory—though I am sure he was telling everyone in heaven on election night about his grandson.

Only after Annabel and I voted at our family's polling booth on polling day did Mum take me aside and tell me about Reete's condition, and we all then took time out to visit her. She wasn't really conscious by this stage, but we got to say our goodbyes. Nanna passed away in her sleep in the early hours of the next morning.

I would like also to record my thanks to our local state Labor MPs, branch members and party officials who attended both of my grandparents' funerals. The Labor Party rallied to my family and showed the true strength of character of our party and movement. I would not be the person that I am and strive to be, with the values, beliefs, and approach to life and public policy that I have, without my Nanna and Dadda. I love them, I miss them and I'm sorry they never got to see me in this place or meet my son Nicholas, nor have him meet them, but I am proud to place all of this on the record in this House tonight.