Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Road Safety and Freight Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to offer my most humble and sincere condolences to Paola Gallacher, the wife, the life partner and the friend of the former Senator Alex Gallacher. This House affords us as members the opportunity to get to our feet and offer our condolences. Whilst we did acknowledge Senator Gallacher in the House of Representatives prior to question time as a group, I want to take this time to add my comments to those comments made in the other place by those who got to their feet to acknowledge Alex's contributions in this place. Paola, I rise to offer some comfort to you in these dark days. This time of mourning that you would be going through having lost someone so significant in your life must be a living hell. Thinking about what you're going through should turn our minds to thinking about our own mortality and what we should do with the time that we have left in this place.

Alex had a great affinity with the transport sector and rose to the dizzy heights of being the TWU president. He surrounded himself with good men, and each of those in the Senate who spoke on his condolence motion had a transport theme in their contributions, which is evidence of his contributions in this place. He was a pleasure to work with in committees and, when he wasn't in parliament, he was a keen golfer. I enjoyed spending time with him immensely. He made an amazing contribution to this place and he had a little catchphrase which was, 'There is much to do.' If each of us goes away knowing that we can made a contribution in this place, there is still much to do. Vale, Senator Alex Gallacher.