Kimberley Kitching (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

The death of a colleague while they still serve here in the Senate is a reminder to all of us that our time on Earth is limited and that we should never waste a day, or indeed a minute, here. Alex Gallacher's passing is a reminder for all of us to stay focused on doing the most good we can in the limited time we're given. Like me and like all Labor senators, he was haunted by the fact that we have been out of office for all but six years of the last 25. I'm sad to be eulogising Alex Gallacher, but I'm also weary of reflecting on so many careers like his: too much time spent in opposition and not enough time with a chance to make real change—all that time, all those missed opportunities, all the good that should have been done and could have been done.

It is a commonsense statement of the obvious to say, 'You can only do good when you're actually in office.' Senator Birmingham and Senator McKenzie have both referred to the quote from Theodore Roosevelt that Alex's daughter Caroline gave to him for his first speech, but Alex and I discussed last year another Roosevelt quote. I would be driving up to Canberra last year and I would phone Alex. Alex was either at the golf club or sometimes resting at home. He said to me, 'You know: that man in the arena quote.' That is:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Alex was his usual dry self in discussing that quote, but there was also a poignancy, because he said to me, 'You can never be in the arena forever.' Alex would want this: for us to work tirelessly from now until the election, focusing on what matters to Australian families, so that we can have the privilege of governing on their behalf. Alex would want that.

Men like Alex Gallacher come from a Labor tradition rooted in common sense, the wisdom and life experience that comes from hard work driving trucks, making airports work, two decades of representing hard workers at the mighty Transport Workers Union and representing all South Australians since 2010. Long before there were terms like 'virtue signalling', 'inner city elites' and 'wokeness', Alex Gallacher despised them. He was interested in what Labor was doing for working people—not talking, not positioning, not excusing but actually doing. I wonder if Alex Gallacher ever once read or paid much attention to the talking points usually sent out by various prime ministers' or leaders' offices in the time he was here. I don't think anyone could write a script for Alex Gallacher. I doubt anyone dared.

When he took some time off, fighting the fight of his life against an insidious cancer, I filled in for him briefly on the economics committee. After speaking with him and assessing the contributions he'd made, I had one look at the proposal before that committee—a half-considered Treasury thought bubble about criminalising cash transactions greater than $10,000—and I did my very best to channel Alex Gallacher by asking some tough, direct, pointed questions about the measure that would have caused great inconvenience and imposition on older people, among many others. He had already made it clear that he was deeply sceptical about the merits of the idea no matter who supported it. The committee approved it in principle, as it was government and opposition policy in principle, but with a long list of conditions precedent that gave the Treasury a great deal to think about. We haven't seen the measure in legislation, and I don't think we will for quite some time, until the committee's bipartisan concerns are seriously addressed by the bureaucracy.

Senator Fawcett has reminded me about the trip to Port Augusta. We got out of the airport and into a minibus, and Alex sat up the back and David sat down the front. I looked at them both and said, 'We are not spending this trip in different parts of the minibus, are we?' So in the end we sat together, and Senator Fawcett is correct: it was a great trip. I was very lucky because I was with two very thoughtful people—people who wanted to do good. I can't thank Alex anymore, but I thank Senator Fawcett. That was a great trip, and I learnt a lot.

Also, in the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee, no-one could ever accuse Alex Gallacher of being unsound. He was from that tradition—also mine—of belief in our alliance with America, a great country, and of belief that Israel must exist. I can't help thinking about when AUKUS was announced. Alex Gallacher would have loved AUKUS.

While Alex didn't seek glory or boast about many achievements here, this is just a small example of Alex Gallacher's common sense and good judgement. It's an illustration of the impact that men like Alex Gallacher can have here, and why we need more people like Alex Gallacher here. Just because a powerful bureaucracy wanted it, Senator Gallacher needed to be persuaded on the merits, assessed not through a prism of what Canberra's bureaucracy wanted but what would benefit the lives of the people Labor senators are here to represent.

We're not here to make good impressions on Radio National or Insiders. We're not here to trend on Twitter. We are here to do what Alex Gallacher did all his working life: champion Labor values, the right to work, the right to be safe at work, the right to be treated with dignity at work, in a society that leaves no-one behind. Alex was gruff, a straight shooter, honest and wise. Senator Sterle has referred to him as 'Mr Happy', but underneath that grouchiness—as I find so often the case with grouchy people—was a heart of gold and a restlessness that we weren't doing enough for the people he was sent here to fight for.

In the days ahead, when we're debating self-indulgent propositions in Labor forums, when we're slogging through the detail of unwise bureaucratic proposals in Senate committees, when we're thinking about what kind of Labor Party we need to be, what kind of government we should aim to be, I will think about Alex Gallacher. Today my thoughts, as they have been over the past few months, are with Paola, Alex's family, his staff and his friends. I'm sure many of us have had conversations with Alex about his family, and many about his grandchildren. May his memory be an example to all of us. Vale.