Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to make a short contribution to this condolence motion for Senator Judith Adams. It was with great sadness that I learnt that Judith had passed away after her long battle with cancer. I just want to relate a short story. I was in Kingston, in Tasmania—actually, Senator Abetz lives around that area somewhere—and I was at the local swimming pool, talking to the owner. She said, 'It must be hard being a senator, with all the long hours that you have to work,' and I said, 'Oh, yes; it is.' Then she said, 'But you're not the only senator that I know.' I said, 'Who else do you know?' thinking: of course it is going to be the bane of my life—Senator Abetz's name is going to pop up! But it was Senator Judith Adams. In the words of the pool owner, 'She's the most wonderful senator. She works so hard for Western Australia. We were such good mates and we haven't caught up for a while.' This was in February. Such was the impact of Judith that someone that she had not seen for a long time, who had since moved to Tasmania, still considered her a great mate. It was as if she had just seen Judith yesterday, and I know that she was very sad when the news came through that Judith had lost her battle with cancer.

Judith made a great contribution during her time in the Senate. I of course knew Judith mostly through our membership of the Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs. As we have heard from everybody today here, she was well liked by members of all political persuasions. I know that all our thoughts are with her family and friends.

Judith was first elected to represent Western Australia in the Senate in 2004 and again in 2010. At 62 she was the second oldest woman to enter the Senate, a fact she was very proud of—and we have heard that here today. I know this to be a fact because she told me she was very proud of it when she gave me a long lecture on something I had not got right.

During her time in the Senate, Judith was a strong advocate for her home state of Western Australia as well as for people living in regional and remote areas. She had a rich and varied life, both while she was a senator and before she entered parliament. We all know that Judith started off life as a Kiwi before she became an Aussie, and she trained as a nurse. In 1968, I understand, Judith moved to Western Australia and continued her hard work, helping others with her training by being a relief matron and midwife through rural and remote parts of the state. She also demonstrated her passion for the health sector, as she was a councillor to the Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association and a member of the National Rural Health Alliance. I mention these roles because it was these many and varied roles that Judith was involved in throughout her life that made her the passionate and experienced member of the Senate that she was. Judith was well respected and she will be greatly missed by her family, her friends, her parliamentary colleagues and her constituents.

I have also been asked to pass on the sincere condolences of former senator Natasha Stott-Despoja, who wanted to express her sympathy to Judith's family and friends, and to remember the wonderful group of cross-party women that Judith was part of and the work that Judith did on many of the private member's bills that have been mentioned here today, most particularly on pregnancy counselling.

I would also like to strongly support the words of Senator Abetz today, when he described Judith as a great senator but above all a great person. I will finish by quoting Judith herself, who said in her maiden speech, which has also been mentioned by Senator Milne today:

Life experience cannot be bought or traded.

I believe this sentiment fittingly sums up the active and diverse life that Judith led and pays tribute to her contribution as a senator. Thank you, Senator Adams.