Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

What a pleasure to go after that contribution, Karen. That was absolutely beautiful, so thank you.

I'm proud to rise to speak on this condolence motion for our friend, our colleague and our sister in the Labor family, Senator Linda White. Today, I, too, am thinking of Linda's brother, who spoke so beautifully at her memorial last week and who were so dedicated to her. I'm thinking of the loyal and loving found family of Linda's dear friends who we also met last week, who were by her side in her final months too. And, like all of us, I'm thinking of Linda's staff, led by Ben Armstrong, who has simply gone beyond in the past few months. Ead, Ned, Ekta and Amit, what a loyal band of amazing fellow warriors Linda had in all of you. We are really so grateful to you for supporting our friend and comrade in this period at the end of her life and we're really so proud that you're part of our Labor family. You're really rusted onto us now too. There's nowhere for you to go; you're Labor forever. I'm also thinking of Linda's union family at the ASU, a group of strong, loud and proud women who I know are still trying to process this loss, including Emeline Gaske, Imogen Sturni, Lisa Darmanin and Victorian minister Ingrid Stitt, just to name a few.

Losing Linda is hard to process for many of us in the Victorian Labor movement. She had simply just always been there ahead of us as one of the most senior women in our party. She's been a staunch voice of principle and she's been a strident campaigner for equality and an authority on the highest standards of governance, as the longest-serving woman member on our party's national executive.

She's simply been a warrior for working people in this country, particularly women. We've all thought of Linda as something like a matriarch to us, and 'matriarch' is a word that can mean many things. I'm not sure what Linda would think of me using that word about her, but I think we know she would have an opinion either way. 'Matriarch' can mean the head of a family, and I really feel that, yes, she was like that to us. It can mean a woman who is very powerful, and there is no doubt that Linda was just that. 'Matriarch' can also describe a woman who you just wouldn't want to mess with, and that is also true of Linda.

Many stories have been told in recent days of Linda absolutely wiping the floor with her opponents in an argument, only to pick them up, dust them off and tear strips off them again. I'm grateful to have witnessed one of those episodes just last year and very grateful that I wasn't the opponent. It was actually what could be described as a bit of a blue-on-blue scenario—or, in our case over here, a red-on-red scenario—which unfolded at our national conference last year. I think you were there, Senator Green. Somebody in the room, in a huge caucus meeting, made the mistake of saying that there weren't enough people with a union background on Labor's national executive—a claim that I know those opposite would find audacious as well. Debate ensued. For maximum effect, Linda was towards the back of the caucus room when this ill-fated and doomed claim was made, which meant that every single person turned to watch as she marched to the front of the room. It was like extreme slow motion. The room went quiet. The anticipation grew. Linda got behind the podium, adjusted the microphone to her impressive stature and just let rip. As testament to how powerful she was, at this moment I actually don't remember who it was who raised the question about union background on the national executive; I really don't. It's possibly because they shrunk so small in their seat and have never been seen again. Linda, of course, in that moment, had a fair few things to say about her own proud union background and her own proud contribution to the national executive. Needless to say, debate ended swiftly after her contribution.

I'm really so glad that I got to see this and so glad that I also got to spend the last 18 months or so in the Senate with Linda. She really was just getting started here, as so many people have said, and she loved it. She absolutely loved it! This place was a whole new world for her: a world of knowledge, of policy and of purpose. It was a new place of fights to enjoy and experiences to relish. It really is just so fitting that she became our senator for Victoria, and I now can't imagine her finishing her working life—her stellar career that we've been hearing about—without having held this office. She was born for it.

You do get to know people in a different way here, late at night in the chamber, and I loved our chats in the quieter moments here about what Linda was reading and her love of the finer things in life, which I really didn't know about before we worked together in the Senate: her love of beautiful food, her love of beautiful flowers and plants, her apartment on St Kilda Road and her visits to galleries, theatres and shows—of course, she passionately advocated that these should be accessible to all. I also didn't know much about her iconic and extensive eyewear collection before having chats to her about that in the chamber.

Linda leaves us with a feeling of extraordinary loss but also with an extraordinary legacy. Her biggest legacy, I think, is the next generation of women who are following in her footsteps: women in their 20s and 30s who she mentored and inspired. It is such a gift for a woman of her calibre and experience to actually decide that she is going to bring the next generation through, that she is going to build leadership beneath her. She did that deliberately and thoughtfully. We see that in the leadership of the ASU today. We see her legacy in the activism she inspired amongst the working members of the ASU. We see it in the union members who stood up and won equal pay in the ASU's historic campaign. We see it right here, in the first-ever 50 per cent female federal government in history, and we'll see it in generations of women to come.

It's so fitting that Linda did know that super on paid parental leave, which she fought for for years, will become a reality. Linda White—sister, comrade, matriarch—we miss you already. We love you. Rest in peace.