Tania Lawrence (Hasluck, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was shocked and deeply saddened to hear the news of my dear friend Sarah Carter's sudden passing earlier this month. I came to know Sarah shortly after being elected to this place, as I prepared to embark on a parliamentarians' Save the Children learning tour to Kenya in December 2022. Very few people could have coordinated this work, and Sarah did it with her whole being, her vibrancy, her sense of humour and her passion. She carried our motley delegation and united us for a common cause. With the extraordinary relationships she had developed, Sarah enabled us to see the critical and often life-saving work being undertaken by the Huruma health facility, the World Food Program, the UNHCR's Kakuma Refugee Camp, Fred Hollows, Save the Children's Accelerated Learning Program at Kalemchuch, the Red Cross and the OPAHA facility for people affected by HIV. Throughout the visit in Kenya, Sarah was an essential guiding presence. I reflect on that visit, on Sarah's work and on the $15 million increase in funding commitments we achieved:

Do they know?

No backs to their chairs

They proudly answer questions

Where is Sarah from?

Mothers line the hall

Free health checks for their babies

Hope from poverty.

Stigma unattached

Runway-modelling drag queens

AIDS free, safe and loved.

Slums on rubbish tips

Proudly home to enterprise

A future backed in.

Refugees respected

Food grown, water harvested

Partnering models peace.

Arduous, dusty roads

Villagers grapple with climate change

Subsistence living.

Fear, drought, isolation

Sarah focuses the spotlight

No-one turns away.

The politics of it

The cold-hearted truth of it

Complacency exposed.

But with gentleness,

Kindness, no judgement at all

We enter Sarah's world.

The pathway to change

Equality, prosperity, happiness

The want to see change.

No courage needed

Just open to a perspective

That with much we give.

Sarah built the bridge

Created trust without exploitation

Strangers welcomed in.

Will they know the news?

Will they know the results created

Hearts forever shifted.

Sarah's legacy grows

In sorrow we look for glimpses

In all the souls touched she lives.

For all those suffering

Hoping Sarah would come their way

It is now on us.

We will heed your call

Optimism, fairness, truth

Through our friend Sarah.

Sarah's leadership

Love, laughter, determination

Achieved our mission.

Sarah was taken from us far too young, yet at the same time no-one can say that she hadn't already lived a life of great service to her own community in Melbourne, where she served as mayor, and to a global community, where she saw the need. I and, I know, many others here miss her.