Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Environment and Water (Senate)) Share this | Hansard source

Today I am indeed humbled to pay tribute to a great West Australian and a great Irishman, former Labor senator Jim McKiernan, who passed away on 10 August after a long battle with cancer. As we've heard, Jim was just 14 when he left school to help support his family. He said authorities turned a blind eye to this due to his father's illness. He was the third of eight children and he went out to work because he knew his family was relying on his income to survive. As Senator Cormann highlighted, he worked as a petrol pump attendant, an abattoir worker and a messenger. What I know of Jim was his work ethic. That was apparent to me from a very young age, when I first joined the Australian Labor Party in Western Australia. It was through his office and his mentorship that the likes of me and his good friend the honourable Stephen Dawson first saw how professional political offices worked. With Jim you could always see that connection of his values and his ethics to the way he undertook his work. For me, I was inspired by the complex national and international issues that he was interested in, such as asylum seekers, nuclear disarmament and trade issues.

Jim recognised from a young age the unfair and classist society he was born into, with his family relying on charities like the St Vincent de Paul Society and handouts from friends and family. It's exposure to those issues—learning those lessons and values from the likes of Jim McKiernan—that I have taken into my work in this place in working with charities and community organisations to address injustice and poverty, and, most important of all, in dealing with the structural issues that undermine the welfare of Australians.

Jim understood very well the inferior social service system in Ireland. He stood up, as a member of the great Australian Labor Party, for quality social safety nets here in Australia. It is something that always informed his approach to social welfare in this place. As others have highlighted, in his inaugural speech he said how:

… unjust and inequitable our Western style societies can be. The rich and wealthy command, control and walk all over the weak and disadvantaged.

In his first speech he described how his attitude to life had been coloured by this suffering in his childhood. In 1960, he was only 16 when he followed his older siblings to England, where he completed his apprenticeship and qualified as a first-class machinist. In 1969 he moved to Perth with his first wife, Jean, and their son. He found at first only intermittent work before securing a job as a fitter and turner in Fremantle at the Dillingham Shipyards.

It was there that his lifelong relationship with the Australian union movement began. A work mate was sacked for participating in union activities and the Australian Society of Engineers didn't speak up for him. That's when Jim joined the Amalgamated Engineering Union, now the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union. I can say to the chamber today that it is inspiration from the likes of Jim that has given me my own motivation to also be a member of the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union. He described the union movement as the only real organisation outside the political sphere which can or is willing to do anything for the working class. But something that Jim taught me is that the union movement is the movement that creates the will within the political classes to do anything for the working class. They are the heart and soul of our accountability in this place. As we've heard, Jim became the AMWU's full-time education officer in WA from 1976 until he entered the Senate in 1984.

For me, it's been a great pleasure to watch Jim McKiernan's relationship with his lovely wife, Jackie McKiernan—formerly Jackie Watkins—whom he married in 1985. Jackie was, of course, the state member for Joondalup and, later, Wanneroo. I want to, in this place and in this speech, pay tribute to the strength of the relationship that Jim and Jackie shared, bringing their children together in their family. The love for their children was always evident when you watched them as a family and as a couple. I could clearly see that as they came together as a family during Jim's last days. Jackie, the love that you and Jim shared was always evident not only in your teasing banter, your good humour but also in the political courage and inspiration you gave each other and others. It has not only been a joy to know Jim but also to have known you both as a couple. I'm saddened at Jim's absence as an individual but also saddened by his absence from your life, Jackie, and from the joy that you brought together as a couple to a great many people.

I and a great many owe our thanks to you both for your encouragement, inspiration and mentorship. Jim was a wonderful advocate for metal working and manufacturing jobs in Australia. It's a voice and passion I carry with me into this place, and today I know he would have railed against the TPP and the effect on manufacturing jobs that mean so much to the fabric of our nation. In his inaugural speech, he lamented the shift to cheap goods manufactured elsewhere to boost big profits for companies at the expense of Australians and Australian workers. He criticised the Fraser government for its lack of leadership and policy that saw some 152,000 metal engineering jobs go in the decade prior to his election.

Jim McKiernan was also a proud republican. He submitted 28 petitions between 1992 and 1993 that called for the removal of references to the Queen from the oath or affirmation in the allegiance pledge made by new Australian citizens. For me, it's not surprising that a boy from Cavan, not far from Ulster in Northern Ireland, who is a migrant from this country, would want this country to represent the values of all migrants in a true republican sense. It's a great tribute to him that, in 1993, the Australian citizenship amendment bill brought forward these changes, thanks to Jim's work.

As we have heard, Jim was a strong advocate for the Irish community in Australia and for building a strong relationship between Ireland and Australia. He proposed a motion in the Senate welcoming the endorsement of the Northern Ireland peace processes for the Good Friday agreement, which was passed by the government, the opposition and the independents in this place.

As Senator Cormann highlighted, he visited Ireland where he met the then president, Mary McAleese, who thanked him for the work that he had done building the relationship between Ireland and Australia. I'm sure that, after relinquishing his Irish citizenship, he endeavoured to regain it and held it in great esteem. I want to share some words about Jim's passing that were put forward by the President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins, who said of Jim in correspondence about his passing:

His life, his commitment to justice, his courage, his internationalism represented something that can only be described as Ireland and Australia at their best to overcome the obstacles he overcame to be a wonderful achievement in itself but even greater for what was his lifetime commitment to removing all those obstacles for the benefit of all humanity.

So today I join in expressing the sentiments of this place in expressing condolences to Jackie, to your children, Steven, Jimmy, Donna, Lisa, Kim, Kate and Ben, to your partners as well as to Jim's 14 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. We will always remember the life and contribution of Jim to our community as an advocate for workers, a committed trade unionist, a vowed republican, a proud Irishman and a proud Labor member. Vale Jim McKiernan.