Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about my friend Senator Linda White. As so many others have indicated, Linda was immensely capable, fiercely intelligent but, perhaps most importantly, seized by her obligations to others: to working-class people, to victims of sexual abuse and to women. In contributing this afternoon, I wish to share just a few stories and observations. Like many others on this side of the chamber, I have known Linda for decades. As a young woman seeking to involve myself in the national affairs of the Labor Party, it was no small thing to find a woman so confidently and effectively contributing to an organisation which at that time was still largely run by men. This, as I came to understand, was a set of arrangements under challenge.

In this, Linda modelled the kind of female leadership that so many of us advocated. She was forthright, she was committed to fairness and she understood and acted on the responsibilities to other women that arise for senior women. She was absolutely committed to supporting other women around her, including in supporting their right to occupy senior roles. And, of course, at its sharpest edge, this meant that she was dedicated to improving women's representation in Labor's caucus. No-one more assiduously pored over the affirmative action performance of each jurisdiction and no-one was braver or more constant in pointing to the areas where representation was falling short of expectations. While she never would have done so, Linda can well claim to have laid the ground for many of Labor's achievements in bringing women through into our caucus and into our ministry. I apologise about the weeping, everybody.

Linda was also very creative about politics. Amongst many examples, this manifested in an early enthusiasm for Twitter and the capacity to use that platform to advocate for the things that she believed in. She very quickly built up a dedicated online following. When I was elected as Labor's national president, having essentially and carefully avoided all participation in social media up to that point, Linda set about retweeting my every single utterance! Now, I make no claim that this improved Australian political discourse, but I do offer it as an example of the practical solidarity that Linda offered so many women, supporting them in their right to contribute and, in the most practical ways, amplifying their voices. And, at a personal level, Linda left me in no doubt that she supported me and would help me in that role.

The period when Linda and I worked together perhaps the most closely, though, was in my early years here in the Senate when I was pursuing a set of policy concerns about women and economic security—and, as senators here will know, a committee inquiry is nothing without substantive content. As a leader within the Australian Services Union, Linda set about ensuring that the committee was offered personal testimony, original research and cogent advocacy about the unconscionable disparities in men's and women's super balances and the steps that would be necessary to remedy these. I pulled up the submission that the ASU made to the inquiry into gender segregation in Australian workplaces. It was made on 3 March 2017, and the submitter, of course, is one Linda White. It's an 18-page submission. It has 18 recommendations, it has 44 footnotes and it is filled with practical gems, born of decades of advocacy for equal pay—understanding the practical barriers to equality in workplaces, the legal barriers in the tribunals, and the biases and prejudices at the bargaining table. And this was typical of her advocacy—detailed, careful and practical—and it informed so much of what has since been possible through the work of women's organisations, unions and our government. Child care, paid parental leave, reforms to promote pay equity, super on paid parental leave and, of course, paid domestic violence leave—Linda was a forceful advocate for progress in all those policy areas. And, as Senator Gallagher has observed, I think she would be very proud of the reforms that we progressed through the Senate this week.

When Linda joined the Senate, we enjoyed many quiet nights together in her office, and it's both incidental and essential to observe that she always had beautiful plates, beautiful linen and beautiful food to welcome her guests and make them feel comfortable. We would sit together and talk. Like others, I always welcomed her counsel and respected her judgement, and I absolutely trusted her. We often talked about the young people in our orbit: how to develop them, how to support them and how to involve them. And it has perhaps been a little unnerving for Linda's staff to discover just how frequently she spoke about you to others, but we did often talk about you—and some other staff too, if you're listening. She loved you, and she cared for you, and she respected you. To all of you I say: thank you for the way that you supported her and the way that you supported her work.

I will conclude my remarks by simply observing that I will miss her greatly. I found myself heading to Melbourne for her service and rather stupidly thinking that perhaps it would be good to call her and make time for lunch. It is very hard to believe she's not here, and I can only imagine that this is very much harder for her close friends and her family—particularly her brother, Michael—and I offer them my condolences. Vale, Linda, good comrade and good friend.