Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's one of those wonderful things because, as strange as it sounds, it's a wonderful opportunity to celebrate somebody who's so dear and means so much to all of us. In this opportunity for all of us to say a few words about Linda, I think when you're saying a few words about somebody who has passed you should also say things that are good and direct about them. It should be an honest opportunity, actually, to release a little bit of that energy about Linda. I've been on the receiving end of Linda for many, many years. So Linda, if there is another place, you'll have to just grin and bear it for a little bit.

Before I start, though, I want to express, in that same spirit, the deep care that Linda had for her whole team, particularly Ben. We had some opportunities to spend some time together, and it was so wonderful to see the way you guys interacted—that beautiful and loving personal relationship. Linda was always very clear, very strong, but also very, very caring—sometimes I wish a bit more caring in some of the fights I had with her, but she cared about making sure that what she wanted to make sure happen happened. That's the great credit of Linda that everyone has borne out in the speeches that have been given.

I had heard her mention this on one occasion before to me in our conversations. I've known Linda for close to 25 years—it's probably a little bit longer—and she told me of how, as a 20-year-old going to university and working at a fast-food place that happened to be McDonald's, she saw the injustice of insecure work. She saw that as both a personal and a collective thing. She saw happening to other people what the consequences were if you didn't get a shift. And, really, sometimes when we talk about policy for different things it sort of becomes a little bit—it can be abstract. But Linda, right from an early age, knew that something had to be done about that fundamental power imbalance where workers can be so badly treated. To be so young and decide to be the frontrunner and become a union delegate of a workplace is probably the most political thing, in my mind, you could do. Whichever way anyone votes in or outside parliament—or doesn't vote or whatever you do—that is an extremely political thing of Linda to say to a voice of power—when you're a 20-year-old and it could be the difference in putting food on the table or paying your rent—'I'm going to stand up for others and for myself.' That shows a great insight into Linda's character, and that character trait followed her throughout her life.

When I look at some of the battles that Linda and I stood together in, Linda led in many ways in the Ansett dispute, a battle we'd actually won. Even though there was a substantial amount of money won at the end—an incredible amount of money: over $760 million was won after 10 years—Linda stayed with that fight. Linda was also part of the fight where she got redundancy pay for every worker across the economy. One of the things that really stand out with Linda—who was part of that push and played a role, like many others in this place—is that she always saw this as a fight not only for those people she was representing but for the tens of thousands of other people, union members or not, across the economy that were disempowered. They were losing their entitlements because of crafty economic strategies adopted by companies. In the case of Ansett, that was borne out.

One of the things that always struck me with Linda's perseverance in those fights was that she always held very dear to her what the personal consequences were. I'm going to quote this piece, because I think it again speaks to the inherent values that Linda held. When she was talking in her first speech about the lost of 16,000 jobs, this is how she described it:

The social and economic harm … is beyond words.

Then she gets to the personal side:

Suicides, marriage breakdowns, the loss of homes and security—the Ansett collapse broke many people. It was a brutal reminder that markets don't prioritise the wellbeing of workers. That is not their purpose and never has been. They are vehicles to create wealth, not ensure justice.

That's more than an ideology. That is something you hold in your heart, in your mind, and I know Linda lived and breathed that.

I can't say there is any argument that I have had with Linda that wasn't on the basis of what was the best way forward. That was her driving ambition, that was her objective and that was her goal in all those discussions and, sometimes, those very heated arguments.

You think of wonderful people like Sally McManus as compatriots of Linda. Sally described Linda as:

… a fierce advocate for working people, dedicated and incredibly hardworking. Aviation workers benefited enormously from her leadership.

She went on to say so many more things about Linda.

When you look at the struggles and the battles we've talked about, which I need to put into context, the big change that Linda made, along with many others in the Australian Services Union she led, is that 200,000 non-government social and community workers around Australia received equal pay in the equal pay case. That was a replication of what she did when she was working at McDonald's. She represented workers, she organised them into a union to understand collectivism and, yes, she even encouraged them to pay union fees, heaven forbid—a good thing, to give the capacity to make change. When that decision was delivered for equal pay in the 2019-20 case, it was because of the years upon years upon years of giving people hope, of saying, 'This fight that you think is beyond you, this goal, we can win and fight for together and achieve.' That mentoring, aspiration and determination were infectious. Thousands upon thousands of people led that fight in workplaces across the country, because Linda said: 'It can be won and it has to be fought, and that injustice you feel is something I feel. Let's feel it together and make a difference together.'

That capacity to have a community view—we in the office here call it collectivism—about the community is important. One person is incredibly important, but all of us standing together makes such a difference—instilling that as a way and means of actually making real change and real reform in the community. I was listening to Emeline Gaske and her comments about Linda. She said: 'Linda White and the ASU put the issue of the gender pay gap on the national agenda and kept it there for almost a decade. This is a fitting legacy that honours her work and memory.'

I can't say it more than that, but I can say it in so many other ways. I was talking to Lauren Hutchinson, the assistant secretary of the Health Services Union, as I spoke to Sally the other day, about the mentoring that Linda did with Lauren and working in the aviation industry. Linda and I shared a lot of passion about righting the wrongs that Qantas did. Finally the rest of the community came to that realisation as well, so we got vindicated—even others. One of the things that Lauren said was that as a mentor to many ASU members, without ever assuming the name or seeking any thanks for it, her greatest teaching was a bargaining style that was a thing of nightmare for HR officers, as many have touched on before. She wanted to know that she was controlling a meeting with the bosses, even if it looked like she had momentarily lost control. She was always strategic, always laughed in the debrief, recalling the horrified look on the baby-faced HR officers who had learnt to keep quiet in future meetings.

One of the things that Linda also did is that during one of those negotiations, on a particularly heated point, the negotiating team was on the back foot—one of the things that Linda always wanted to instil in the rest of the workforce was that you're carrying out this role, you might be on the services desk, you might be somewhere else within the administration, but those people across the table are no better or worse than you. As much as they might want to laud their power over you, as much as the power imbalance exists, you need to make sure you grab your power and you grab the fact that you are an equal.

In one particular particularly robust argument, Lauren reminded me, after scolding and sending Qantas out of the room, they were in a hotel and she ordered room service for everybody so they could all sit down and have a nice meal while the others were waiting outside. It wasn't about humiliation of the managers at all; it was actually about saying to the workforce, 'We know there's an inherent imbalance, but you have a right to be heard, you have a right to be respected, and they're not respecting or hearing what you've got to say.' I don't mean about having a difference of opinion, but they need to respect. That imbalance needs to be always addressed in any discussion.

When Linda came to the Senate, we both found ourselves in the bilateral air services inquiry which was recently held. She always gave a short shrift to spurious arguments that some businesses groups put forward, and of course put some very good arguments on those matters. I particularly come back to one that I remember, at a closing the loopholes bill hearing in Perth back in October. The National Farmers Federation had come up with an argument that giving unions more rights to investigate wage theft would be a biosecurity hazard. In response to a very fair question, the head of the NFF gave Linda a patronising lecture about how biosecurity processes work, which completely misrepresented the question she had asked. Linda responded: 'Thanks very much for that. Thanks for pointing out my ignorance. Fortunately, I sat through days and days of the biosecurity RRAT Senate inquiry, and, remarkably, the government made me chair of the parliamentary friendship group for biosecurity. I look forward to you educating me more if our paths ever cross.' You could immediately see the regret on their faces. It's a real shame that we won't get to see their paths cross at a future biosecurity event.

The point Linda was always making was you can't help but think sometimes that there is both a gender balance and prejudice that people bring to the table. Linda was always saying: 'Don't bring your prejudice to the table. Hear what we've got to say, argue with us, articulate your argument, and we can fight it out.' Over those years, there were so many wonderful speeches, and hats off to everybody in the chamber, including those across the aisle and the crossbenches. There have been some wonderful insights. Similar to what many of us are saying here, this is really indicative of Linda's capacity to reach out and be a decent human being—a tough and decent human being, a gentle and defiant human being. You can be all those things at once.

Linda, with her cutting wit and her 'take no prisoners' approach, was outraged when a 2023 article in the AFR mistakenly said that Linda was a member of the ALP's Right faction. She demanded an apology, saying: 'This is outrageous for them to mention that I am in the Right faction. I am going to sue somebody and I am going to take a defamation action if I don't get this rectified.' I replied, 'I should sue as well, because they are associating you with me.' Of course, we looked at each other and burst out laughing. But, as always, Linda managed to get the retraction. Phil, if you are listening, it was a good move to retract it!

Like so many things with Linda, her battles and her fights to make a difference were humbling, just like those of my good friend Alex Gallacher and other friends of ours here, including those on the opposite side. One of the things that people don't really understand is that, regardless of political differences in the Senate, politicians generally keep coming here because they believe in a better Australia. Linda and others have kept coming to the Senate regardless of their health because they believe in a better Australia. If there was ever an example of what makes this country so great, it is people like Linda, who are prepared to fight for what they believe in, who are prepared to argue for what they believe in and who are prepared to prosecute what they believe in, regardless of the personal pressures or the circumstances they find themselves in—in this case ill-health. It is a great re-energising of humanity. It is another of those wonderful things that Linda has left for us all. She was a person who was a friend and mentor for many.

I really enjoyed what Katy Gallagher was saying before. I had written down a few words beforehand, so I'm not going to steal her words, but I'm going to cover a few when I think of Linda: agonisingly direct, tough but caring, determined, passionate, strong, relentless. As I mentioned before, I have been on the receiving end of the relentlessness a few times, as Senator Glenn Sterle mentioned—on the opposite side of union arguments. We are all beneficiaries of her generous nature and her desire to make wrongs right again. Her memory will last forever and she will inspire all of us.