Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This month the world got a little bit dimmer with the passing of a dear friend of our Labor family, Ivan de Vulder. An unsung hero, Ivan was Labor to his bones. He knew the value of social justice, reform and the promise of a better tomorrow. Ivan didn't just communicate Labor's values; he lived them every single day of his life, relentlessly kind and relentlessly supportive of Labor comrades. On the booths or through his longstanding connection with Labor's Environment Action Network, or even when he returned to university as a mature-age student and stood for the student council, Ivan was always there fighting for fairness. He was a man of boundless energy, never failing to make you smile when you ran into him. Quite often I would run into him in Sydney at a Labor function one day and in Canberra at a Labor function the next day. Through the crowd, you'd see his smiling face, and he would always be there to support our cause. Life wasn't always easy for Ivan, but that's what made him so uniquely Ivan. He wore his heart on his sleeve. He did so unapologetically. He touched the lives of everyone he met. Even when sitting phone banking during election campaigns, he would always be there to reach out to offer support and a helping hand. He'll be sorely missed.