Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

Luch was loved by the entire parliament. I'll never forget, as a relatively new member sitting with Simon Crean in the front row, Luch came along and was instantly greeted by Simon. The banter between them—they were clearly very old friends. His smile, his warmth, his sense of humour meant there was always kindness in a room that tends to gravitate to conflict rather than kindness. Often Luch would be the only thing that every member of the House could agree on.

Knowing him has been one of the great privileges of this job. As others have said, if Luch brought you a glass of water, he'd always tell you it was on the house, and he'd always describe them as a couple of schooners. There was a joy and a relaxed banter. He was always the person who would want to know more than anyone else when we were going to have late nights so that he could organise the other attendants and be able to work out how overtime and things would run for people. I would say there would be many times when we had a late night sitting of the House of Representatives where Luch was actually the first person that I spoke to about it, to make sure that he could do his organisation. The conversation would be quick because then he would want to talk about the difference between his beloved Canberra Raiders and my Canterbury Bulldogs, and we'd go straight to an NRL conversation.

There is no memory of Luch that is anything other than kindness and joy, and it takes a pretty special person for that to be the case. My deepest condolences to his wife, Mary, and to his children, Jessica, Joshua and Rebecca. All members of parliament will be forever grateful to Luch's family that part of his life and so much of his professional life was shared with us. May he rest in peace.

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