Marielle Smith (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm grateful for this opportunity to make a contribution in this condolence to our dear friend Peta Murphy. I want to acknowledge the contributions of senators before me and the contributions that everyone made in the other place. I acknowledge the member for Jagajaga and the member for Lilley, who were dear friends of Peta too.

There is so much to celebrate in the life of the spectacular Peta Murphy—witty, funny, sharp, humble, hardworking. She was courageous and at times hilariously outrageous. Every space she was in and every person she met was left better for her presence. This building was no exception, and the outpouring of love, affection and admiration for our friend from all sides of this building and across the aisle shows that most sincerely. Thank you.

There has been so much spoken of Peta's drive for excellence and for service in everything that she did, be it as a lawyer, as a sportswoman, as a scholar, as a staffer and, finally, as a parliamentarian. Her legacy will live on, not just in the tangible, like her fierce takedown that killed off the former government's proposal that would have had domestic violence survivors raiding their own super for help, and all the investments now made in her name to take the fight up to metastatic breast cancer. But her legacy will live on too in the lives of all those people she touched: in every client she had that she advocated for, in the policies she shaped and in the hearts she touched.

As a friend of Peta, I can confirm that all the lovely things said about her are true. And as a friend I can say it's a little bit tough to come into a motion like this and to speak of someone who lived a public life and whom there are so many lovely things written about publicly but who we also knew privately, to navigate what deserves to be brought into the public domain in a condolence like this and what should be kept preciously contained within our private memories to cherish. I would love to tell the story of how two members of the class of 2019 from different states, different houses and different internal persuasions overcame perceived differences to become fast friends, but it's too early in my political career to put such things on the Hansard, and I reckon Peta would understand that.

I'd also love to share some of Peta's sharpest private observations, the cut-through points and critiques that would have you either choking on your coffee—you couldn't quite believe she said it—or in absolute stitches of laughter. But, again, these moments with Peta aren't really fit for the Hansard, because, as well as being this brilliant mind, this overachiever and this purpose driven, service minded champion of all that she believed was right, she was also bloody funny. She was one of the funniest people I have ever met. She could always and would always strive to make you laugh, especially on the bad days and even when she was suffering herself, when she was struggling or when she was in pain.

Peta loved her community; that was so clear for everyone to see. As we would exchange texts and photos at the end of a weekend about what we'd been up to, I used to tell her over and over that her photos and her remarks on what she'd done just made me feel exhausted. It wouldn't be uncommon for her to go to six or seven or eight events in just one day and back them up into the evening. She pushed through some extraordinarily difficult things to be there for her community. She did that because she was genuinely of her community and she loved them. She knew how important it was to fight for the people of Dunkley in this place.

The contributions from members and senators across the aisle have been beautiful, sincere and meaningful to all of us on this side. It's clear she was loved across the parliament. She was loved because she was an exceptional, genuine person. She should serve as a role model to us all, because she earned that respect and affection across the aisle while still being an absolute political warrior for what she believed in. She showed that you could debate respectfully and form friendships across the aisle but do that without conceding an inch of ground on the things that you believe in.

I don't want us to ever forget that Peta was a Labor warrior. She was Labor through and through. We are a family bound by a belief in the collective and an overwhelming desire to make our country more fair. Throughout her whole career and her whole life, Peta fought for those values. She fought for our Labor family. She fought for everything we believe in and stand for. And she fought for who we fight for.

But all of us who will miss her here know and remain conscious that she also had a big, beautiful family outside of this place. I was really lucky to meet so many of them at her 50th birthday, just before she passed. This huge group of friends and her loving family knew her in a whole multitude of ways that we did not. For her family and for these friends, their loss runs deep into years and years and years of shared joy and sorrow, memories and events and traumas that we will never understand in here, whose grief will flow not just in the moments and places where they knew Peta and saw her but in their quiet moments and their lonely moments and in the everyday steps and actions they take where they had Peta, those spaces and places which Peta touched.

To Rod, especially, who has lost his soulmate, that pain is beyond my comprehension, and we are here for you. To the rest of Peta's family, her adored parents, her lovely friends, those she worked with, those she touched, those she fought for and of course her beloved dogs, Bert and Ernie, thank you for sharing her with us. Thank you for sharing her with Australia. We're all better for it.

Peta, you will forever be a Labor warrior, a policy reformer, a beloved wife, a cherished friend and a bloody wonderful human being. I'm so grateful that I got to spend some of that time with you and to have been your friend. Rest peacefully.