Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Over the summer, the Labor movement lost three remarkable people: Peter Barrack, Dave Goodger and Eddie O'Brien. They devoted their lives and talents to the service of working people. They represented the best of the Australian union movement.

Peter Barrack served as the secretary of the Newcastle trades hall from 1979 to 2000. He was the public face of unions in the Hunter region. He was a formidable and respected leader. His efforts, some militant campaigns, some in partnership with employers and government, have shaped the Hunter for the better. Peter understood that union solidarity doesn't end at the factory gate.

He began his political life as a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War and, as a union leader, he built strong links between the trades hall and community, and social and political campaigns. He was committed to the cause of peace, to workers and to environmental and social justice. Peter was never interested in parliamentary politics but his approach to political action was sophisticated and effective, rooted in a left working-class approach that focused on the trades hall being at the centre of working people's lives. He will be deeply missed in Newcastle, where he was a formidable and respected figure, and by people across the Australian Trade Union movement.

My friend Dave Goodger served as national president of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union from 1996 to 2000. Like so many great trade union and Labor Party activists, members of parliament and, indeed, future prime ministers, he began life as an apprentice at the Eveleigh railway yards where he first joined the union. He worked at the Colgate-Palmolive factory where, in 1965, he became a delegate. That was a tough place to work and a place of determined union action, conflict and solidarity. He became a New South Wales state organiser in 1975. He was then elected to the office of New South Wales assistant secretary in 1985, state secretary in 1986 and national president from 1996 to 2000.

As an official, he was particularly instrumental in the metalworkers campaign for shorter working hours in the early 1980s. That bitter campaign won a 38-hour working week, industrial achievement that all Australians now take for granted. He was dedicated, passionate and had a great sense of humour. His comrade Bruce Campbell, former delegate and state organiser, described him as 'a radical who wouldn't take a backward step on the job, a good thinker and a good strategist'. It was this combination of determination and strategic thinking that helped deliver shorter working hours for all Australian workers. I remember how kind Dave was to me early in my time as a union activist and official. My condolences to his wife, Barbara Kidd, and his big family.

Eddie O'Brien was a son of south Sydney who became a sheet metal worker in Sydney construction, a rank-and-file activist and an organiser for the AMWU and then the Australian Workers Union. It's very difficult for anybody outside of the Sydney sheeties group to understand the bonds of mateship, the hard culture and the industrial militancy that has delivered good jobs and decent works in an industry that is impermanent and dangerous. They install air-conditioning systems into commercial and residential construction projects, all over Australia—tough and difficult work. The genuine 36-hour week that they have maintained, the decent wages and the permanent jobs are due in no small part to the determination, street cunning and commitment of Ed O'Brien and his colleagues.

I know. I was there for some of it. Watching Ed at mass meetings of Sydney sheeties, stalking up and down the stage, was like watching Bon Scott at an ACDC concert. It was always a remarkable performance—designed to lead the meeting to smart effective strategies that maintained their grip on the industry and on decent work. I was his colleague for some of that time, nominally at least, in charge of his work. He was direct, good-hearted, generous and deeply funny. It was obvious to all of us who worked with him how much he loved his wife, Kerry. He was a loving father and father-in-law to Brendon and Nicole, Katie and Vinh, Mick and Jo, and devoted to his six grandchildren. His passing was far too early, he had many friends across the New South Wales trade union movement, and he'll be deeply missed by his family, his friends and his foes in the building industry, and right across the labour movement.