Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

I'm in the invidious position of this being the second time I've had to make some comments about Linda. In a desperate effort not to repeat the contribution I made at her memorial service, I'm going to try and work through some of the issues in a different way.

The first thing I want to say is to thank colleagues here for the contributions that have been made thus far and the ones that are to come. This has been a very fine condolence debate, and I want to thank senators for the thoughtful contributions that they have made. Over the last few months I've been enveloped with a deep sadness about all of this, about the loss of a very dear friend, both a reflection on our past friendship but a deep regret for the things that might have been in the future—a deep regret about losing my relationship with Linda as a collaborator, particularly in the affairs of the Australian Labor Party, for so many things that we had done together and all of the things that I believed were to come. For Linda's achievements on behalf of her union and the people she represented in her life before she came here, achievements on behalf of Australian women and the beginning of what I believed was going to be a remarkable career in this institution that she absolutely loved—the Australian Senate.

As I indicated at Linda's memorial service, for a politician I have a very poor memory for how I've met people. People who are very dear friends of mine, very important to me—I hope Rae's not listening—I can't remember quite how we met. I can vividly remember when I met Linda White. I'd been asked to bring a new set of organising principles to the AMWU's membership at Qantas and Ansett, and in the airline and defence aerospace industry more broadly, as we fought Qantas's offshoring and outsourcing attempts in airline maintenance. I think Linda saw just another metalworker coming along who was there to tell them how to toughen up. I just vividly remember her taking to me with a stick in our very first meeting, really quite vigorously! I can't remember quite what she said, but there were arms and legs everywhere and I'll never, ever forget it. A bit like Senator Scarr, I do remember very clearly thinking at the time, 'What a remarkable person,' and I remember thinking that I did indeed like her very much. We became very, very good friends very quickly.

Her contribution to the trade union movement says a lot about the greatest things about the trade union movement. Imagine you were a person who worked for Ansett—a ticketing clerk or somebody who worked in Ansett's administration, with your whole professional life in that role—and all of your redundancy entitlements, all of your holiday entitlements and everything resting with that employer were all gone. What Linda White did, along with Greg Combet and many others, was fight so hard for those entitlements at a time when the government of the day wasn't very interested, to say the least. She also fought for so many of those people to get direct jobs with Qantas. That really mattered. That changed thousands of people's lives.

There was the work in the community sector—mostly women—by people who do the most extraordinary work and are paid so very little to do that work. They are the glue in some of our communities, particularly some of our communities that are economically dislocated, where it's hard. They are the social glue that holds families and communities together. That equal pay case was more than a decade's worth of work. Some of those workers got wage increases of 43 per cent. Just imagine what that means for them and their families, and also for the communities in which they work—the big struggles around pay equity.

I agree very much with what Senator Colbeck said: the life experience that you bring to this place really is absolutely critical. The values and the trade union experience that she brought really captured who she was and shaped the contribution that she made. I've always thought that one of the things that Linda understood was the importance of trade unions in Australian democracy. There are a lot of people who talk about the importance of Australian democracy, but not many people understand that it is what it is because of the trade union movement—not in whole, but it is impossible to imagine Australian democracy having the character and the history that it has without a vital labour movement. Linda understood that, and it informed her approach to these issues.

I was there for much of Linda's contribution on affirmative action in Labor. I served—and still serve—on Labor's national executive and was there for much of that time, so I worked with Linda very closely on these questions. I remember, as Senator Gallagher said, that there wasn't universal applause at the idea of affirmative action in the Labor Party when these issues were first advanced. Some of these issues were very challenging. I know that some of the other parties in this place are going through many of the same arguments, maybe 30 years too late. Many of the same arguments were run by much the same sorts of interests. I remember, I think it was in 2015 at the Labor Party National Conference, one of the negotiators for the other side of this argument literally—not figuratively but literally—banging their head on the table in frustration at not only the argument that Linda was making but the inevitability of it, that he knew and she knew—and I could count—that we were going to prevail at the conference. Having those enforceable provisions has changed the Labor Party at a federal level. It has changed the parliament; it has changed the country. It has been reflected in all of the states and territories. It has made an incredible difference.

I did also want to say that her contribution within Labor was so deep—chairing think tanks, across particularly Chifley. But her contribution in terms of governance and finances at the national executive was absolutely critical for us. In terms of her contribution when it came to some very, very hard decisions that required principle and courage and values, she could always be relied upon at that national executive to do that hard work and make those calls—in particular, the intervention into the Victorian Labor Party, which was absolutely an essential thing to do but a difficult burden, particularly for those members of the national executive who were in Victoria.

Linda loved this institution. I'm really grateful, Senator Scarr, for your contributions about your work with her. She understood the importance of the Senate as a democratic institution. She understood very quickly the importance of those functions about protecting the privileges of the Senate and about defending against executive overreach. She understood that. Her contribution on the National Anti-Corruption Commission has a lasting impact in terms of Australian democracy, and I think she should have been very proud of all of that. She was also somebody who, as Senator Pocock said, understood scholarship and industrial relations. She was a person who was always—whether it was in Senator Pocock's time, as an industrial relations academic, but all the way through—open and available for that community of scholars for interviews and access for research and guidance; I know that people across the industrial relations community respected that very much.

I also want to say that Linda had a remarkable staff. It is a unique burden for young people, I think, when something like this happens. It is particularly challenging. Linda's utterly appropriate demand for privacy placed a unique burden on her staff—to have that experience of caring for their boss and making sure that she could continue with her work but to have also that requirement for discretion. Not being able to talk about these issues outside of the office is a unique burden. You did her so proud. Ben Armstrong, Ekta Mahal, Ned Lindenmayer, Ead Stokes and Amit Aalok: you should all be so proud of the contribution that you made.

Ben wrote to me this morning and said:

Senator White showed me how to do politics differently.

She was tough as nails, and I never saw her pull any punches. But I also never saw her go toe-to-toe with someone—whether in the Senate or in the ALP—without gifting her opponent a sort of frank respect. Or, as she put it: "playing a straight bat."

No plotting, no playing of others off against one another—just the delivery of a direct and unwavering, but always honest argument. Someone recently said to me that this way of operating proved Senator White was 'an old-style union boss' in the best tradition. I think that's true, and I was so proud to work for her because of it.

What I learned from Linda's way of doing politics was that, even if people don't like your ideas very much, they often still end up begrudgingly liking and respecting you as a person—because they can trust you and trust what you say.

I will take that way of working along with me for the rest of my life.

With the death of Linda White, I have not just lost a Senator. I have also lost a confidante, a mentor and above all a dear friend. We shared a love of art, food, and beautiful things. Together, we also grew a love and respect for the Australian Senate, particularly its committees and its quirks.

I will miss my friend and my boss, but above all I will remember the things she taught me about politics, about how to treat people and how all of that can make the world a better place for you and others to be in.

That was Ben Armstrong's contribution in his note to me this morning. It's just as beautiful as all of the contributions that have been made here today, and it really does capture who Linda was.

I finally want to say that the last couple of months have been very challenging. I will never forget it. Linda had been quiet for a few weeks while she'd been here. I remember that I had looked over my shoulder—because she sat just over my right shoulder—as we were leaving the chamber after a division, and she had just looked at me in a particular way. I did think to myself at the time, 'Something's wrong.' I went back to my office and then caught a plane back to Sydney. I texted her a few times just to see how she was going, and I didn't hear back. I remember, in the middle of December, just looking over my shoulder, and I knew that something was deeply wrong—deeply wrong. Eventually, we caught up, and I went and saw her. I absolutely will treasure the time that I spent with her, sitting and holding her hand. I do know that the privilege of being able to do that was not there for all of her friends, and that requirement for privacy was absolutely vital for her. It was how she managed her illness, and it was how she managed that period. I do also recognise that that put an additional burden when this news came through. Many of her friends and colleagues were absolutely shocked, and I'm very sorry about that. It was a very tough period.

She was tough. She was determined. She was absolutely decent. She was a gourmet. She was a fantastic cook. She loved the arts. She loved her sport. Everything that's been said about the MCG is absolutely true. It really is. Her first speech in this place was one of the finest first speeches that I've ever heard. I was very proud to be part of her political life and very proud to be one of her friends. Vale.