David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I think that's harsh, President, but I'll take it! Jack saw earlier than most how social and environmental struggles are inextricably linked. I stood with Jack on that last successful green ban he was involved with, to protect the beautiful Bondi Pavilion from destruction, and I learned from Jack. Judy, Jack's partner in life and activism, is here with us today. Working as a young lawyer, I also had the opportunity to act for building workers and the construction union—part of Jack's old union. I saw directly how collective union action was essential to face down the threats to individual workers, to protect conditions and to uphold safety standards.

In that work, I had my first taste of real-world politics. I acted for the union in the viciously anti-union Cole royal commission set up by John Howard, and I was also sent in to oppose the then state Labor government's push to strip back workers compensation rights, making it even harder for injured workers to live in dignity. In fact, it was in that political stoush that I first saw Greens in action in parliament. I saw Lee Rhiannon and one of her staff members, John Kaye, listen to the concerns of working people, understand the history and go in to bat for them when no-one else would. That was the early 2000s, and it was also a time of mass movements—mass movements against war, with hundreds of thousands of us marching for peace. As we marched all across this country this place ignored the calls for peace and, apart from Bob Brown and Kerry Nettle, barely ruffled a feather as Australia went off to another unjust war.

So, as a lifelong bushwalker, things were coming together for me: social and environmental justice, peace and political action. I joined the Greens, and look what that has done! In fact, it's remarkable to think that almost 20 years ago to the day, Kerry Nettle delivered her first speech in this parliament as the first-ever Greens Senator in New South Wales—thanks, Kerry, for all your work. And today, I enter the Senate as a Green in one of a record 16 Greens elected in this parliament. And I'm also part—

An incident having occurred in the gallery—