Sam Rae (Hawke, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's with great sadness that colleagues and I rise to speak on this motion. It is with enormous admiration and appreciation that we reflect on the legendary contribution made by Senator Linda White.

While her time in this place was unfairly brief, her service to working people and to our union movement is the work of her entire life. Throughout her time as a lawyer, as a union official, as a senator and in her many other endeavours, Linda always fought for social justice, for fairness and for equity. She was driven by the relentless desire to improve the pay, the conditions and ultimately the lives of working people. The magnitude of Linda's contribution to the Labor movement and to our society more broadly was very clear couple of weeks ago as hundreds of people from all across the political spectrum gathered together in celebration of her life in Melbourne. It was attended by our Prime Minister, by ministers state and federal, by union leaders and, most importantly, by rank and file union members and delegates who had fought alongside Linda at the bargaining table.

Like them, I was lucky to work with Linda. Whether it be in this place or within the broader Labor movement, we would often find ourselves in the same political arenas. She was usually an ally and sometimes a very fierce adversary. I had great respect for Linda and always enjoyed working with her on shared causes. And I will freely admit to sometimes steeling myself for those times when our causes diverged. She was absolutely formidable. And despite these occasional divergences of views, Linda was also a very dear family friend to Zoe and I, with Zoe working for her at the Australian Services Union for very many years. Zoe was one of the many ASU women who benefited from Linda's mentorship, her patronage and her friendship.

Linda's role in our party's affirmative action policies have been celebrated widely—and rightly. She is rightly credited with playing a critical role in the achievement of 50 per cent women in our Labor caucus. At an individual level, Linda's contribution is arguably even more significant. Linda was a loyal and proud friend. She was an advocate, pushing women forward for positions, singing their praises and plotting their futures. This was a rare and special role that she played in so many people's lives, and her legacy can be seen in the lives and careers of so many ASU and ALP women leaders. Her fingerprints and her advocacy are certainly evident in many of the big decisions of Zoe's life. We are forever grateful for the role that she's played—her generosity, her kindness and her loyalty.

As a union leader, Linda was tough and unrelenting. She was a formidable negotiator and advocate. She understood power—how to build it and leverage it for the benefit of workers. She was unrelenting in the pursuit of causes she believed in. Her career highlights have been told at length: securing entitlements for Ansett workers after the collapse, the equal pay case for social and community services workers, addressing the superannuation gap for women. Those are the achievements that got headlines. But her daily work at the bargaining table for aviation workers, the legal industry and social and community services workers was just as significant. She fought for every clause, and she fought for every entitlement. She was unrelenting and motivated entirely by the interests of the collective—the members she was there to represent.

Linda is loved by ASU delegates and members who served at the bargaining table with her. Zoe tells me that walking through the airport with Linda was like being with a celebrity. From the check-in, through security and in the lounge and customer services desks, Linda knew all the ASU members, and they knew her. They knew she was on the way up to Sydney to hold their bosses to account. She had their respect and their trust.

It was telling that, amongst the many dignitaries at the funeral, there were delegates from Qantas, Slater and Gordon, Maurice Blackburn, Virgin and many more places. Those people saw Linda at her finest—deep in the detail, prepared, forensic, fierce, strategic, terrifying and magnificent. She had their respect, as she had all of ours.

My deepest condolences go to her brother, Michael, and their extended family as well as all the ASU family, including the workers and delegates that Linda stood by and fought for and her many, many friends all across the Labor movement. We are so proud to have known her and to have enjoyed her glorious friendship. Vale, Linda White.

Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to acknowledge the comments made by the member for Hawke and his amazing partner, Zoe, who I know quite well, and their connection to Senator Linda White.

In reflecting on what I would say today, I couldn't help but remember all the times that I bumped into Linda in the Capel Street lift, the dodgy old lift that we had at North Melbourne. I worked then for the LHMU you and she was there visiting the ASU. They shared a building. The thing about that very slow lift is you can have some very good conversations quite quickly. Usually, it was a catch-up about the latest campaigns or what they were focused on but also quite often it was about the worry of actually working on the campaign internally in terms of the great work she was doing within the Labor Party.

What is challenging about this is that I just feel that we've lost such an opportunity with Linda passing. She was only a senator for the briefest of times and would have made such an enormous contribution not just to this place but to public policy and the Australian people. For the majority of her working life, she was a real activist, a campaign warrior, a feminist and someone who really fought for working people within her role when she was at Maurice Blackburn and then in her role at the ASU.

One of the things that I learned at her memorial was that she was so heavily involved in the arts. I knew she was interested, but to learn that about Linda also helped to really understand the full picture of her character and her capacity along with how funny she was as a person and how much of a joy she was to be around. I really feel for and want to acknowledge the grief that many of our ASU brothers and sisters are going through. That's the union that she worked with for many, many years, with the delegates, members, organisers and people that she campaigned with. She really turned rhetoric into action. She didn't just say, 'Women should be paid equally.' She made it happen. She worked with members and delegates. She worked on a campaign at a time when gender equality and pay equality were considered done. We were still at that place in the debate where we had equal pay laws and people thought the job was done, but that was not the reality. A lot of community sector workers were still paid much less than their male counterparts in equivalent-qualification positions. That's where the equal pay case really became a big campaign. It really helped revitalise the movement across Australia around gender pay and gender equality. Linda and her union, the ASU, were a big part of that.

I recall a meeting I had. I'd just been elected. And when you're a backbencher from Victoria and from the left, if Linda White asked for a meeting, you'd say, 'Yes; when do you need to meet with me?' That was partly so that you could have an opportunity to ask for Linda's advice on this place, knowing her history, experience and understanding to be better than a lot of people's, even though she wasn't yet a senator, but also partly for her advice, knowledge, experience and understanding around policy.

In those meetings, when she would bring members and delegates to speak, what always struck me about the ASU and their campaigns was that they were never just campaigning for themselves or their wages or their conditions; they were campaigning for all women. Their campaign around paid super on all hours worked, not just after earning $450 a month, was a real example of where they pushed for that campaign. They not only helped their members; they also helped every worker who earned a small amount of money that wasn't being paid super. That's the kind of leadership they show—

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 17:15 to 17:29

Linda was a warrior for women's super, and that continued in this place as well. For a long time she campaigned that we needed super on government paid parental leave. I wasn't surprised at all to hear her comments when they let her know that the government was about to make this decision. She said, 'It's about time.' That's the kind of person Linda was. She was like: 'Great. It's done. It's about time. What's next?'

She was always someone that was very true to her values and true to her idea of what was fair and right and just. That really was a big driver behind the campaign around gender equality. She didn't just do that for a lot of women working in her industries that she helped advance from low pay to very good pay, or for workers at Ansett and in the community services sector, in her role as assistant secretary of the ASU; she also did that for women in the Labor Party.

I know that other speakers on this condolence motion have really highlighted the effort that she made and the role that she played in changing our rules in the Labor Party so that we would reach our affirmative action targets. She was always very strong on this one. I can remember at every national conference when the women would get together and say, 'Right; what are we going for this time?' from the very early days. It was always about progressive change but having to hold the line. In those early days, there were formulas like 40-40-20—that is, 40 per cent women, 40 per cent men and 20 per cent it doesn't matter. It was always about setting goals, reaching that goal and moving to the next goal. As Linda said, it was about setting the goal and changing the culture, and that's what we did. By setting that goal, by setting that target, we created the space to make the challenge. If we hadn't, then we wouldn't be standing here today as a government with a majority of women. I think it is quite fitting that Linda helped to drive that change internally in the party.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 17:32 to 17:53

I'll try and speak quickly because we might have another division. The final remark I wanted to say about our friend Linda White was that she was that real driving force within Labor around making sure we did have women at the table, whether they be at the national executive table, at the admin table, in the internal party structures or here in parliament representing the broader Labor Party and our communities.

Quite often politicians and political parties get criticised for being faceless men or the backroom boys, and Linda was our answer to that. She served with distinction in these internal committees, and she was the honest broker. She was the one that made sure that we were being true to our values, and I really want to thank Linda for that. Her leadership, her work and the collective way that she helped bring women together—and she wasn't the only one—really helped make it possible for other women like me to even be considered and to be preselected.

When Linda was preselected to become a senator, it was a real case of merit. She had the runs on the board, and she was the most qualified person to be preselected to be our new senator in Victoria. When you're proposing that a big bear like Kim Carr is about to retire, you've got to have a pretty good name and a pretty good shortlist. I'll be really honest with you: there was only one name on the shortlist, and that was Linda White.

Vale, Linda White. You will be missed in a big way, not just in this place but in your union.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 17 : 53 to 18 : 21

Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There being no further speakers, I understand now that it is the wish of honourable members to signify at this stage their respect and sympathy by rising in their places.

Honourable members having stood in their places—

I thank the Federation Chamber.

Fiona Phillips (Gilmore, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That further proceedings be conducted in the House.

Question agreed to.