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

I also want to express my personal condolences to Linda's family, her colleagues and her team here. It was a terrible shock to hear about Linda's passing. When you first come into this place you see people entirely through a partisan lens. You see somebody as a member of the Labor Party or as a member of the Nats or as a member of the coalition. It is only through a series of interactions, whether it is contributions in the chamber or, more often, one-on-one chats in the corridors or through the work you do together in committees, that you get a better understanding of someone as a human being. In the short time, and privileged time, I dealt with Linda, pretty much every one of those interactions was enriching, because I could see there was a woman of conviction, an extremely proud unionist, a feisty and unapologetic feminist and a proud member of her party, the Labor Party. But underneath all that was a core set of principles.

Before I came into this place, a lot of the work I did as a state MP was around advocating for victims of child sexual abuse in institutions. When I talked with Linda about that, she had lived that struggle and lived that fight, had always been on the side of survivors, and was always contesting the institutions and trying to hold institutions to account. It reflected her politics. I think many people assume that, if you are working as a solicitor, somehow you are a paid agent. It was pretty clear to me from my communications with Linda that, whenever these issues came up, that was work she put her heart and soul into. She was on the side of survivors and victims and she held institutions to account, which reflected her principles and her politics.

When she was appointed to chair the NACC implementation committee, she took that job on with gusto and with that very dry, directed wit that she had. I can still remember her voice as chair. It was kind of dry and kind of directed, and she'd say, 'Well, Paul,' or, 'Well, David,' and that kind of meant, 'Shut the hell up, sit down; we're going to get on with whatever we're doing.'