Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

():  It was very kind of the member for Goldstein to read out some of those tributes from other colleagues as well. I want to acknowledge her and other friends from the crossbench for their lovely words today.

Peta Murphy was joyous, she was mischievous, she was hilarious, she was courageous, she was generous, she was curious, she was studious, she was tremendous and, most of all, she was luminous. She was here, just last week, and now she's gone. And, now, a place that was so lifted up by her presence is now weighed down with the heavy and immense sadness of her passing. Death didn't come for her out of the blue or out of the clouds; it announced itself to her and to us—and not just once. Her cancer came and went and then came again. The bounce in her step came and went with it, and colleagues learned to hang on the ups and downs of her relapses and recovery. We learnt to look for the little signs and the little signals because, as other colleagues have said, it was hard to get her to talk about her illness specifically; she would only talk about it for the greater good.

When Peta got better that first time, it wasn't a false dawn, because there was nothing false about Peta Murphy. Sometimes when we lose someone that we admire, we say that we didn't realise how important they were to us until they were gone. This was not the case with Peta—we knew. We knew every minute with Peta was a gift—and not just because of her cancer. We knew that every interaction with her was real; it was often fun and it was always cherished. We did not take her for granted.

A number of colleagues on both sides of the House today have spoken about her really important work in health policy—and I acknowledge that too—but I wanted the House to know that she was also very deeply engaged in the economy. This, I think, was where her sense of fairness was tightly intertwined with her considerable intellect. She didn't have the luxury of time to stuff around to get outcomes. None of us do. Those clocks tick for all of us, but for some of us they tick quicker. So she pooled her effort and she concentrated her focus where she could make the most meaningful and often the most immediate change.

She had lots of wrongs to right but not lots of time to right them. I notice the member for Sydney, in her tribute earlier in the week—and others, like the member for Jagajaga—mentioned the concentrated and fierce effort that went into turning back that ridiculous idea about asking women fleeing violence to run down their super. And Peta did that from opposition. I remember when the Reserve Bank was funding right-wing think tanks but not think tanks from the other sides of politics. Peta concentrated her effort until that was changed as well, and, once again, she did that from opposition. From government, as I know, she showed a deep and informed interest in income support, in the gender pay gap, in the wellbeing framework, in the future of the Productivity Commission. I came to rely on her for advice across all of these important policy areas.

The world has enough phonies, but we are now down another real one. Friends have done a really wonderful job of recounting their favourite memories of Peta. I acknowledge the member for Bendigo, a moment ago, the member for Jagajaga, the member for Lilley, the PM, the skills minister for their recollections, all of which just rang really true. But the one that really lodged for me was thinking about Peta's interaction with the member for Jagajaga's and the member for Lilley's and the member for Bendigo's kids. The photos of Peta with Anika's kids over here and with Kate's kids—the way that she gave herself to their happiness was just wonderful. The stories that the skills minister told about Peta rang true to me, because I remember her, as the member for Sydney would and other colleagues would, when she was working here in another capacity, doing important work alongside Brendan O'Connor. The thing that rang true for me from Brendan's contribution was how crazy it would drive her to know that we were spending so much time in this place saying how much we valued her and how much we admired her.

She died at home, and, when she did, it reminded me of that track by the Australian rapper Illy, from the same part of the world that Peta Murphy represented, that electorate of Dunkley. Illy says:

I'm in the bay-side sunshine, repping for the Frankston line

And that's where I'ma be residing when they call time

Peta Murphy, amongst her many wonderful traits, was an outstanding local member. She was 'repping for the Frankston line'; that's for sure, and that's where she was when they called time.

All of the beautiful words spoken about Peta today and about to be spoken about Peta today still can't sufficiently capture and convey to those who didn't know her how wonderful she was, how smart and fun and kind and compassionate and how real she was—an absolute ripper of a person, an absolute gem of a human.

We know that every minute she spent with us was a minute not shared with Rod, or Bob and Jan, or Jodi and Penni, or the two best-named dogs on the planet, Bert and Ernie, who gave her so much happiness, and who, I'm sure, she gave so much happiness to. I know that the nieces and nephew—the biological ones, in addition to the parliamentary ones—will miss her greatly as well.

We are so fortunate and so grateful to all of them for sharing her with us. And now we share with them their abundant pride in her and their immense sadness at her passing. As Peta rests in peace now, they can rest assured that we will never forget her.

See this speech in context