Stephen Parry (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I, too, join in the condolence motion and endorse the comments of all senators who have spoken before me. I do not intend to go over the biographical details of Judith's life but maybe I will give some insights into my close relationship as chief whip to a very loyal and exceptional-working deputy whip.

When we joined together in 2004, as a number in this chamber did, we got to know each other from the Senate training school days and then the variety of activities you undertake with each other as senators. Our relationship was really cemented when we moved into opposition—I was elected as Chief Opposition Whip and Judith as my deputy. For those who do not know, and who are listening to the broadcast, the unique position of the whips' offices in this building—I still don't know why—is such that you share the same kitchen and you have conjoined offices, so you tend to spend a lot of time in each other's company. Equally, you walk in and out of the same meetings together at various times every day and you pop into each other's offices from time to time. So Judith and I got to know each other on that basis, and she became a great confidante—an exceptional, loyal deputy. I had trouble getting her out of the chamber to go home when she was in pain at times, in her latter days. Judith was just a tremendous person to work with.

She had a reasonable sense of humour—I tested that one day. She was on her Gopher, heading to the party room meeting one Tuesday morning. She was leaving her office, and I cut across the courtyard. Judith went up the corridor on her Gopher, past the Prime Minister's office to the party room—and she actually beat me. I suppose she had people opening doors for her whereas I did not. When I got back I said, 'Judith, you have been clocked doing 22 kilometres per hour past the Prime Minister's office.' She was horrified to think there was a speed camera in that corridor! She took it seriously for a short while. To follow it up, a few days later, on a Thursday morning, she had parked the Gopher in what I would call a precarious position outside the opposition lobby. A lot of senators were coming in and out of the opposition lobby at the time having to move around the Gopher, so I stuck an infringe­ment notice on it for irregular parking. Judith loved that.

Regarding the comments about her illness, she shared a little bit about her illness, but she was very stoic and private about it on most occasions. She was very private about her hair loss after the last bout of treatment, when she wore the wig, as everyone will recall. When she removed the wig and had that very short haircut—apart from the fact that she had more hair than me—she looked quite smart. She dressed up very nicely in a beautiful blue gown—and don't ask me whether it had sequins and all of those things—one evening when the Queen was here. We were leaving our offices together, and Judith looked absolutely magnificent. I said to her, 'You look like Dame Judi Dench,' and she did. If you took a quick glance at Judith when dressed up in her beautiful elegance, with her poise and demeanour, she looked like Dame Judith, so we called her Dame Judith for quite some time thereafter. She really enjoyed that. I think it tickled her.

Judith bought to the office a willing determination to get things done. If we were bogged down in different issues, from time to time Judith would use the persuasive power of her being (a) a mature female and (b) very forceful. She would say, 'You are speaking now and that is that.' It was quite good when Judith did that every now and then.

I agree with your comments, Senator Siewert, about her stubbornness and force­fulness with issues, because I can remember many occasions on which she had been to a breakfast meeting with you and then come back and said, 'That Rachel Siewert!' It was very good. She had a very healthy respect for you, both when you were working in adversity to each other and when you worked together on things, as she did for her colleagues in the Labor Party.

I miss her dearly and I think we all will, for a variety of reasons. I miss her for the close cohabitation we had in our offices—just being able to talk to her and pop in and see her. I went to see her in hospital earlier this year—I was there the day after Senator Evans called in. She was thrilled to pieces that he and others had taken the time to see her. But she was still running the show there. She had been moved four or five times from different wards, and she said: 'I am not moving again and that is what I have told them. This is exactly where I am staying, and that is that.' And apparently she stayed there until she finally went home.

She had a nasal-gastric tube in for feeding at that stage, because she could not physically eat. She had just come back from surgery, where they had failed to put a more permanent line in through her stomach. There was liquid in the feeding apparatus and I asked, 'What flavour is it, Judith?' Silly me. She said: 'I don't know. It goes straight into my stomach and I can't taste it.' But, although she said it had all the nutrients, she was looking forward to eating again, which I understand never happened.

She was also looking forward very much to coming back to this very session. That is what was keeping her going. It was what was driving her. From the look in her eyes, she was determined that she was coming back. Right or wrong, she was going to join us for this session. She was disappointed that she was not coming back earlier. It was so sad when the chief whip announced that she had extended leave and was not coming back until June. Then, of course, even sadder, she left us.

Her funeral was a tribute to her life, to all she had achieved and to the esteem in which she was held across this chamber and across the parliament. I think it was nice for us to show that sense of strength and companion­ship and friendship to her family. It was a great display for her family.

We will miss her around the corridors and we will certainly miss her from our team. I offer my deepest sympathy to her sons and granddaughters. We shared stories about grandchildren from time to time. Judith was very proud of her family, and I think that in the end family always would have come first for Judith. We respect that in every senator who places their family at the highest level. Rest in peace, Judith.