Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

I also rise as Leader of the Nationals in the Senate to associate the Nationals with the generous comments being made this morning on the passing of Senator Linda White, who those of us in the National Party got to know through her involvement in the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Committee. She was in the Australian parliament for a regrettably short time, just one year and seven months. We do extend our sympathies to her friends, family and staff.

In that brief period, Senator White used the opportunity given to her by the Labor Party to continue her life's work as a warrior on behalf of the members of the union she was so proud to be a member of, particularly those in the airline industry. Senator White and I served together on both the bilateral air service agreements inquiry—better known as the Qantas inquiry—and the inquiry into Australia's preparedness to host the Commonwealth, Olympic and Paralympic Games. We travelled the country together to five states during various hearings on these important committees, and Linda was more than a dedicated member. Sometimes in this place you learn more from your foes than you do from your friends, and it is no secret that Senator White and I were known to clash during certain committee hearings, as anyone reading Hansardthe staff in the corner over there are laughing—would know. She and I shared very much in the pursuit of our agendas within the democratic process, and we were not afraid to make our views very, very clearly known.

But, behind the scenes, Senator White was always a kind and considerate person and always attempted to accommodate the different views of committee members. Senator Waters went to that in her comments—that our democracy and our chamber function best when we do listen to each other—and Senator White, despite her strong and fierce advocacy for her point of view and the people that sent her to this place, always committed to listening. It showed that Senator White, besides being a tough opponent, held onto the importance of the democratic process that we all engage in. I can vouch that, unlike other committee members in this place, Senator White always showed up and always made sure she was there representing the people that had sent her.

Born in Sydney and educated at Cheltenham Girls High School and Melbourne university, Senator White completed a bachelor of laws with honours and a bachelor of commerce. Her life was dedicated to the betterment of workers through the union movement. She practiced law with Maurice Blackburn and was the assistant national secretary of the Australian Services Union from 1995 to 2020, back when that was hard to do. During her maiden speech, Linda explained her life's work after coming from a background where she and her brother were the first in their family to have gained a university education. She was the longest-serving woman on the National Executive of the Australian Labor Party and was a strong proponent of promoting women in the Labor Party. Her friends describe her as being an enormously dedicated and loyal person. In her maiden speech she described her motivation in politics as getting justice for people, this being the dominant force of her working life.

Her interest as a union member started in her first job at McDonald's and reached its high point in the collapse of Ansett, which saw 16,000 Australians lose their jobs, and there were a further 60,000 workers in companies that relied on Ansett who lost theirs as well. She recalled in her maiden speech:

As a union official, there is nothing as bad as finding out that 4½ thousand of your members have lost their jobs in the one day.

When you reflect on her maiden speech, she highlights a variety of factors that brought her to this place that also brought so many on this side of the chamber to this place as well that we can appreciate and identify with. Her parents, although being highly intelligent and having worked incredibly hard, believed strongly in public education. I know Senator Birmingham is a great graduate of the public sector, as so many of us on this side are.

She spoke of the work ethic of both of her parents and the opportunity that growing up in a country like this provides people like Senator White and like so many of us: that, with a work ethic, a belief and the opportunity that this country provides, her own father started as a delivery boy and ended up managing director of the company that he worked for, which I think is testament to him but also to our country. She spoke of a great culture of public service within her own family. Whether it was the local sporting groups or education groups, her parents gave her a great example of service at a community level that she then took to the highest place of public service in our country. She loved the arts and music in particular.

As Leader of the Nationals in the Senate, I want to acknowledge her lifelong work as an industrial officer on behalf of the members of the ASU, formerly the Federated Clerks Union. She was a dedicated, staunch member of her party and its movement. For her lifelong contribution to public service, I, on behalf of National Party senators, pay my respects to former senator Linda White.