Sue Lines (President) Share this | Hansard source

I was shocked to hear of Linda's passing. It seems as if I'd known Linda for a lifetime. It's hard for me to put a time on it, but I knew her for at least 30 years. Of course, I knew she was very sick, but only in my darkest moments did I ever contemplate that, perhaps, she wouldn't return to this place. We were friends through thick and thin. We were comrades.

I started in the union movement in 1987, and shortly after that I met Linda in her role as assistant national secretary of the ASU. Linda was a warrior, and, through the ACTU, we had many conversations about Victoria's harsh industrial laws. We learnt a lot about how the ASU, under Linda's management, had approached the laws and what strategies they'd put in place to survive. We suspected—and we were right—that these laws would be introduced into Western Australia, and they were. When the Court government introduced them, they became the harshest workplace laws this country has ever seen. Linda's advice was invaluable, ensuring that our union in WA not only survived these harsh laws but thrived and survived.

Of course, the next big battle for Linda was Ansett—and, in some ways, Linda and Ansett are synonymous. She, as others have said in this place and I witnessed firsthand, was an absolute champion for workers' rights and fought tooth and nail for a just outcome. Linda, on her humorous side, of course was also an expert on flights and planes. At that time, I was living in Sydney, and she used to shake her head at the type of aircraft—and I won't put it on the record—that I used to fly down from Sydney to Canberra on. She used to just shake your head and say, 'I would never travel on one of those planes,' which, of course, didn't instil me with much confidence as I left our meetings to jump on yet another one of those planes. But she certainly knew planes and she certainly knew the airline industry—and not only Ansett. As I'm sure others will say, she fought epic battles with Qantas as well.

The next time as union officials that Linda and I worked together was with my union, the United Workers Union. It was a small part of the social and community services claim. Linda was an extremely capable pair of hands. Through that, I would often be down here lobbying the government and the opposition with Linda, with Michael Flinn and with Sally McManus. Those negotiations were tough, watching Linda absolutely take it up to the government, as Senator Wong has said today. I was in some of those meetings, and sometimes I used to wish the floor would open up and swallow me up, because Linda was relentless. But we have all heard testament about how tough she was as a union official. Certainly, as a union official who was a small part of that, she was formidable, as was Sally, of course.

The next time we met, almost at the same time, Linda and I served together on Labor's National Executive. I joined the executive in 2002 and was really pleased when Linda joined in 2004. I believe that Linda and I became a force to be reckoned with. We had a lot of arguments. Lots of the tough jobs were often, as others have said, given to Linda. As a new position was established, I would often joke and say to Linda, because we nearly always sat together at National Executive, 'It sounds like another job for you, Linda.' She served with great determination. But she was, as others have said and I knew firsthand, passionate about the trade union movement and passionate about the Labor Party. It was a great honour to serve with her through thick and thin.

To her staff—to Ben, to Ekta, to Ned, to Ead and to Amit: Linda lives on in you. You worked very closely with her. You served her well and she served you well, and I know that you now have a special piece of Linda White in you. She has no doubt changed your lives forever, and you will have changed her life in the way that she saw things. She was very proud of all of you. You were an amazing team. We often say in this place that we are only as good as our team, and I want to thank you for serving Linda—Ben, particularly you, for all that you did for Linda, particularly in the last couple of weeks. You are amazing, and I'm sure that all of you will go on to do great things.

Equally, when Linda chaired the NACC committee, I joked to her when I knew we were establishing the committee and said to her, 'It sounds like a job for you, Linda,' and it was a job. She was a great comrade. She was a great friend. She had a huge wit. But, even after all those 30 years that I knew her, I still learnt things from her memorial service, which I watched online. I was not able to go, but I watched online. I have to say that Solidarity Forever absolutely did me in. That's when I had a really good cry. I was proud to be her friend and to call her my friend and my comrade. Rest in peace, Linda.