Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Saturday, 2 December, will see the opening of the 2017 Blacktown City Art Prize competition—I'm pleased to have the member for Chifley here in the chamber. The competition is now in its 22nd year, and the prize is highly valued. There are cash prizes of $20,000 and acquisitive awards, and the prize attracts local, regional and national artists in drawing, painting, sculpture, ceramics and mixed media.

But this year there's another reason why this event is so important. It will also be the occasion to officially rename the Blacktown Arts Centre in honour of the late Leo Kelly, who passed away on 24 January this year. Leo had an amazing passion for the arts. He wanted to encourage local artistic talent and performance space, and his ethos was that the western suburbs of Sydney should have equitable access for its citizens in recognition of their desire to participate in, view and enjoy art and culture in all its forms. Indeed, it was Leo Kelly who in 1996 moved the motion to establish the Blacktown Arts Centre. He instigated the Blacktown City Art Prize. He attended all of them and, despite his illness, he attended the function to announce last year's winners. He overcame strong opposition to the plan for an arts centre on its current site. He argued that his opponents had no alternative use for it and just wanted to sell it as a car park. But Leo had the foresight to recognise that the people of Western Sydney deserved and should have such a high-value centre of excellence.

Leo Kelly was a servant of local government. In fact, he was first elected to Blacktown City Council in 1980 and had served continuously since that time. He was mayor on three occasions, including during my period of service from 2004-08 and including a year in which I had the honour of serving as his deputy mayor. I found myself rifling through old boxes of campaign material from our election in 2004. It was Leo who, in 2003, suggested to me that we should run a ticket in ward 2—Labor hadn't elected two Labor members to that ward for decades. It's hard to imagine that that was 14 years ago. I remember saying to Leo: 'Look, if we're going to do this, I'm going to run this campaign. You're going to be doorknocking in Glenwood, and you're going to have to keep up with me.' I remember seeing him one day—we were doorknocking during the summer—and I lost him. I couldn't find him. It turned out someone in Glenwood had taken him in because he was covered with sweat and they were worried that he was going to expire in front of them. But Leo persisted, and we got up in 2004. That was the start of my career in public office.

He had an incredible vernacular. He created words like 'stuffwittery', which I'd never heard from anyone else. His voicemails were legendary. His voicemails would start: 'Leo here, Michelle'. He was a life member of the ALP, as is his beloved wife, Janet. I still remember, unfortunately, Janet coming to a mobile office of mine in Schofields towards the end of last year. It was there that she told me that he was sick and wasn't going to get better. He had just been elected to council again in those elections.

Leo did so much for Blacktown. He loved Blacktown. He was a true champion of Western Sydney, in everything from the establishment of parks and reserves to arts, as I discussed, and sport. He was passionate about the idea that local sporting groups should play on high-quality fields. He never believed that second-rate teams deserved second-rate grounds; he wanted everyone to have the highest quality facilities. He was passionate about child care. He was passionate about the staff of council more than anything. It was a testament to how much he was loved by all the staff by the attendance of so many of them at his funeral.

He was in the last weeks of his life when my baby Aurelia was born just before Christmas, and Janet messaged me the afternoon that she arrived: 'Congratulations to you on the birth of your daughter, a wonderful Christmas present. Leo not doing so well. Cancer spread to his brain. Just told him about the baby, and his reply was, "I knew it was a girl."' Janet, the dignity which you showed Leo in his final weeks was incredible.

To John and Melissa, his beloved grandchildren, Owen and James: he loved you so much. Owen, Leo considered you his son. He made a difference, and it's fitting that he'll be honoured in this way.