Sue Lines (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Hansard source

I, too, sincerely thank Senator Brandis for his words describing Pat Giles and I thank our leader, Penny Wong. Pat Giles represents all of the good things about Labor senators. She was fierce, she was determined and she made many achievements in this place. I want to start with her involvement in the trade union movement. The health services employees' union that people have talked about today is my union—the former Missos, now known as United Voice. Pat Giles' legacy in United Voice is massive and still echoes in that union today.

Senator Wong talked about—and, indeed, Senator Brandis talked about—Pat's honorary doctorate from Murdoch University and her Order of Australia. I want to talk about two other achievements which also demonstrate the amazing contribution that Pat made. She was awarded life membership of the Australian Labor Party. That's quite an achievement. It doesn't come just because you've spent 20 years paying your dues and attending a few meetings. It comes because you have made a real achievement in advancing the goals of Labor, either in this place or in the community. And Pat did both of those. She was awarded a well-deserved life membership. I remember that state executive where she came. Pat, for those of you who didn't know her, was quite a short woman, but she was very fierce—not in a way that made people afraid, but she had fierce determination that just radiated around her. It was a very proud moment when she was awarded that life membership. She was also awarded life membership of United Voice. Again, this was not because she spent 30 years as a member of the trade union; she left a fierce legacy at that union.

One of the things that's widely regarded and passed on to new organisers at United Voice—and, indeed, when I started as the United Voice organiser in 1987 I followed in Pat's footsteps. I organised in the aged-care industry. Everyone told me what a trailblazer Pat had been. When she first started at the health services employees' union, the aged-care sector was this unregulated, awful place where people were treated very badly. I am ashamed that we saw those things being echoed on the 7.30 report earlier this week. It was a terrible place. Workers were exploited. Senator Wong went to some of that in her contribution in her condolence to Pat. So Pat's job was to clean up that industry by herself—an industry of thousands of workers and hundreds of nursing homes. Don't we always set the bar high for women! But she did that. Along with the secretary at the time, Jim McGinty, they established a really strong reputation. If you underpaid a cleaner, a nursing assistant, an enrolled nurse, a gardener or anyone in the aged-care industry, you can bet your bottom dollar that Pat was coming after you. No doubt she was spurred on by her former role as a nurse, but she left a fierce legacy that still echoes at United Voice today—that single-handedly, with the support of a good union secretary, she cleaned up that aged-care industry. It's no coincidence that, when she came into the Senate, one of the first things she did was establish an inquiry into the aged-care industry. Some of the reforms that Pat recommended as part of that Senate inquiry were the forerunners, if you like, of the modern-day sector that we see today. Those two achievements, life membership of the Labor Party and life membership of United Voice, were two things that I know Pat treasured.

She encouraged women. Certainly, as Senator Wong said, she did pave the pathway for women to come along after her. It was really interesting that, when Senator Wong mentioned the formidable gang, I thought, 'Gosh, how does she know that about Western Australia?' Whilst Pat might have had a formidable gang of women here, she certainly had another formidable gang of women in Western Australia: people like Cheryl Davenport, people like Helen Creed and people like Carolyn Jakobsen, who also was elected to this place. I know that Pat's Senate office was a revolving door of ideas, activity and women, and she really did make sure that she was mentoring women. If any of us said that we were a bit scared to put our hand up or a bit afraid, then Pat was always a great sounding board and a source of absolute encouragement for all of us. I do remember her northern suburbs office. Everyone was always welcome, and it was truly a place where ideas were generated, put out and really developed.

One of the other things that certainly both Senator Brandis and Senator Wong have mentioned is that she had a number of firsts. She was the first woman on the Trades and Labour Council. Even when I started at the union in 1987, it was still a pretty blokey world, so I can't imagine what it must have been like for Pat in those days preceding my involvement. Her daughter Dr Fiona Giles and a good friend of Pat's, Gaye Walker, are here. Fiona told me that not only was it a den of men; it was a smoky den. I joked to her and I said, 'Yes, those smoky, blokey environments, we've all been there.' That's the environment that Pat really was operating in. She was an absolute trailblazer for women.

She was absolutely fearless. She was a groundbreaking defender of the disadvantaged throughout her life. She was a feminist, a unionist and an activist, and she was certainly an amazing role model for me and countless other women who came into contact with her. Fiona said to me today, 'Pat always believed that you treated everyone the same.' That's been echoed in the tributes that we've seen and heard about her today. It didn't matter who you were, you could always approach Pat. You knew that she was strident, but she was always so generous with her time, and you didn't ever feel silly because you asked a dumb question. She made that space, particularly for women, but for everyone who wanted to speak to her. And she remained active. I too joined the Labor Party at uni. I don't know if it's this particular thing that attracts women to Labor, but, like Pat, I went back to uni as a mature-age student and I joined the party when I was at uni. During my early days of involvement in the Labor Party, I can't think of a meeting that I went to where Pat wasn't there championing the rights of a whole range of groups. She was a champion for child care, she was a champion for reproductive rights, she was a champion for women experiencing domestic violence and she was a champion mother.

Her four daughters are amazing individuals. I know Anne Giles. Anne Giles went on to work at United Voice as well. All of Pat's daughters are amazing achievers. Indeed, I know one of her grandchildren, Jessie, who is particularly near and dear to my heart. Jessie went to the UN and other places with Pat. And Jessie, too, is an amazing young woman. She spent a little bit of time at United Voice but is now based in the US in the union movement. So not only has Pat touched the lives of women outside of her family but her daughters carry on that Giles legacy, as Jessie does and I am sure the other grandchildren do as well.

It is a great honour for me today to pay my respects to Pat Giles, a formidable woman from Western Australia. She will be sadly missed. We have celebrated many of her achievements and no doubt we will continue to do that.