Slade Brockman (President) Share this | Hansard source

I wish to also add just a few short remarks to the debate on this condolence motion. Senator Gallacher's journey and mine, as Senator Sterle said, paralleled each other for a little while. We served on a number of committees together, including the Select Committee on the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, but most particularly the Senate Standing Committees on Economics, where he was my deputy chair on the Economics Legislation Committee and I was his deputy chair on the Economics References Committee. We had met on the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport committees.

I didn't know Senator Gallacher well. We probably spent a lot of time together on the economics committee in that first six months, the second half of 2019. We were down in Traralgon in Victoria, and we'd had the long drive out and a day's hearings where we'd heard of the many serious problems faced by that region. And the committee hearing ended, and Alex disappeared. And I thought: 'It's a long drive home. He and Matthew have got to get back to Melbourne and then back to Adelaide.' So I thought: 'He has jumped in the car and gone.' I chatted to a couple of the witnesses. The hearing had been held in the RSL, and I went upstairs out of the hearing room—and there was Alex sitting at the bar. He'd already won one bet and he had another one on, and that will be an enduring memory I have of a wonderful senator and a wonderful contributor to this place. I offer my sincere condolences to his family, his friends, his colleagues and his staff.

I will now ask all senators to rise and join me in a moment's silence to acknowledge the passing of Senator Alex Gallacher, remembering the contribution which he made to the Senate, and to signify assent to the motion.

Question agreed to, honourable senators standing in their places.