Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for the Republic) Share this | Hansard source

[by video link] It's an honour to have the privilege of saying a few words in commemoration of my good mate—our good mate in the Labor Party—Senator Alex Gallacher. Alex was a true workers' champion: a straight shooter, a person who called it as he saw it and always stood up for workers, their families and their rights. He will be a big loss to the parliament.

Alex, like so many in the labour movement, was a Scottish migrant; he came to Australia in the 1960s. He found work as a labourer and then as a truck driver before going on to work as a ramp services operator at Trans Australia Airlines, or TAA as it was then known. That's where his long affinity with the Transport Workers Union began. Alex was a member of the union at TAA and worked his way up to become delegate. The leadership of the union saw his talent, his leadership and his promise and they made him an organiser before he went on to become the state secretary of the Transport Workers Union in South Australia and the Northern Territory in 1996 until 2010.

Alex was also the national president of the TWU and a bloke who never forgot where he came from. When he was preselected to the Senate to represent the state of South Australia he always cherished his years in the union movement and his work for the Transport Workers Union, and ensured that when he went into the parliament he was there to make a difference for those workers and to improve their rights and conditions at work.

Alex was a good mate of mine. We were elected together to the Senate in 2010. I remember fondly the Senate school that we had at the time, just before we actually took up our Senate seats in July 2011. I immediately took a shine to Alex because he did call it as he saw it and he had the endearing features of a wise bloke who had worked in many industries, had graduated from the school of hard knocks and was street smart. More importantly, he knew how to use that shrewdness, that street smart and those life experiences to advocate for and campaign for workers. That's what he did in the Senate. He immediately set about making sure that workers interests were represented. He pushed to ensure that workers had better rights and conditions at work and, importantly, that their safety was looked after and cared for—particularly in the transport industry.

Alex knew the dangers that truck drivers and people who work in the transport industry faced on a daily basis. He'd rung the members and he'd rung the widows to tell them of the deaths of their husbands on the road. He'd seen the carnage of owner-drivers being forced to work ridiculous hours to make deadlines that were imposed by those whom they were carrying for. That's why he was a champion of safer rates and for the establishment of the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal that came to fruition under the Gillard government. It's a great shame that the Abbott government forgot the wise words and the knowledge of blokes like Alex Gallacher and Glenn Sterle in the Senate when they got rid of that important body, because it did have an effect in ensuring that workers weren't pushed to run and drive irresponsible hours, putting at risk the health and safety of workers and causing death to others on our roads. Alex was part of that campaign and an important part of raising those issues.

Strangely enough, Alex loved the Economics Committee of the Senate, and he was very proud to have become the Senate Economics References Committee chair. He brought to the committee not a theoretical perspective about economics but a real-life one, and that is so important. Often we forget about that in the work of committees such as that. Alex brought that reality and that worker's perspective, being someone who had worked for many years in the industry on behalf of workers as a union representative. It was under his chairmanship that that committee undertook some very, very important work, particularly around the notions associated with workers and a living wage, housing affordability, access to quality education and access to training for skills improvement, which are all fundamentally important—and Labor ideals—to advancing the rights of workers and making sure that they have a better life.

Alex was a funny bloke as well. He loved a beer, loved a joked and loved a game of golf. I had the good fortune of travelling to Brazil with Alex in 2018. One Sunday morning when we were due to go somewhere the tour guide said, 'Does anyone know where Senator Gallacher is?' and I said, 'I think you can bet your life that on Sunday morning he's on the golf course.' And, true to form, he was. We were also keen to go to a football game, a soccer game, when we were in Rio, because two of the top teams were playing in a final and we knew it would be something that would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. So we asked the Australian embassy staff if they could possibly arrange for us to buy tickets to go to the football game, and the embassy staff said, 'Look, I think that's going to be a bit hard. It's a sellout. It'll be too much. I think you'd better just forget about it.' Anyway, the next morning Alex came down to breakfast and said to everyone, 'Don't worry. I've got us all tickets to the soccer.' He'd managed to work out with the concierge a way to get tickets for everyone, and we all went along and had a great time at that soccer game.

That was Alex. He knew how to relate to people. People like him. They warmed to him. He had a great spirit and a great character that will be sadly missed by all, not only in the Labor Party but in the Senate more generally. I particularly want to pay tribute to his good mate, Senator Glenn Sterle. They've had a mateship that has lasted longer than that any of us in the parliament have had with Alex. It's a deep bond, and I know Glenn has been hurting over the last couple of days. We send our commiserations to Glenn. But, in particular, we also send our commiserations to Paola, Alex's wife, and to his kids and grandchildren.

He was a great bloke—a workers' champion. He'll be sadly missed in the parliament. May he rest in peace.

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