Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Early Childhood Education) | Hansard source

I too rise to share some thoughts about Trish and my condolences with her family who are here today. Trish was a woman who was fiercely devoted to her own family and a woman who was fiercely devoted to her Labor family as well. On the first day of May, her two beloved families were able to come together at the Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Melbourne's west to honour Trish and say farewell. I was really pleased to be able to be there and help honour Trish's contribution at that service. Trish was baptised at that church, and we were told there that her values of justice and fairness formed through her Catholic faith. Her family and all of her friends and comrades came together in sadness that day, but we also came together in a lot of pride in an amazing woman as well, a woman who always stood up for the people she cared about, who always fought for the underdog and who absolutely never wavered in her belief in the Labor cause.

Much has been said already today about Trish's incredible contribution. She was the first woman to represent the Territory in the Australian parliament. Her 15 years of service here in this place were incredible, as we've heard. She really lived out her values—the values she learnt through her Catholic faith and the values she learnt in her time teaching in remote Indigenous communities in the Territory as well, where she developed that deep and abiding respect for First Nations people which was in evidence every year of her time here, from her first speech through to her valedictory.

Trish was an absolutely passionate fighter. She fought injustice, she stood up for working people, she stood up for First Nations people and she stood up for women. She was absolutely tireless in her work to build a country that she believed in—a country built on unity, not on division. Those were not just values that Trish pursued in her work; I think they were values that she pursued in her life as well. We've heard that from the contributions that leaders in this place have made from across the political spectrum, and I just wanted to thank all of those people who've made those contributions.

I think one thing that I have heard today is that Trish was really a senator's senator—someone who had immense respect for the institution and knew how to use this institution to do good things for the people that she fought for. Trish was not a fence sitter. She did not hedge her bets or wait on the sidelines; she picked sides. She backed people. She backed causes, and, when she did, that was it—she didn't second-guess anything. If you were lucky enough to have Trish on your side, you had a constant champion.

Like many Labor women—including Senator McCarthy, who spoke so beautifully before—I was pretty lucky to have Trish on my side as well after I entered the Senate in 2019. I first met Trish through Kate, who worked in my then backbench opposition Senate office. Luckily for Kate and for all of us, we've all gone on to greater things now, but Trish and Kate very much came as a bit of a package deal for me, and what a gift that was.

Trish took the time to give me the benefit of her advice, her experience and her strength, and she took mentoring really seriously. She saw it as a responsibility to support those people, particularly women, who came to this place after her. I remember Trish coming to my house for a cup of tea and a bit of a chat about life in the Senate, and it was more than a chat; it was a massive pep talk. Really, every conversation with Trish was a pep talk. I was pretty new, still, to the Senate, and, as with so many Labor women, what she did with me was tell me that my experience mattered, my voice mattered and it should be heard. I remember that meeting so much. I remember her dedication, her commitment and her absolute determination to pass her strength to me and to all Labor women. She was so generous in sharing her strength, and I am forever grateful to her for that. When you left a conversation with Trish, as I did on that day, you stood a little bit taller and you were also a fair bit more grounded, grounded in those values that bind us all together in the Labor movement: belief in workers' rights; belief in equality for women; belief in the strong, proud 60,000 years of culture and connection that we have in this place; and belief that how far you travel in your life should not be determined by where you begin your life.

Her fierce loyalty to her Labor family was magnified a millionfold in her devotion to her own amazing family, who are with us today. The same strength, certainty and generosity she brought to our movement, I know, was felt most deeply by those closest to her. Trish has done an amazing job raising her children, and her daughters. Melinda, Amanda and Kate, spoke at the service incredibly powerfully about what it was like to grow up with a mother like Trish, a mother who was a strong woman who was clearly determined to build and grow strong women too—and that is exactly what she has done. They spoke about how, whatever idea they had, Trish would back it 110 per cent, so much so, I recall, that you had to be really clear what your idea was because, if it wasn't a good idea, she'd back it anyway. So make sure that it's a good idea!

Kate, you spoke so movingly at the service. You honour your mum in your own journey in this place—from being a two-year old, as we've heard from other contributions, wandering the corridors as a senator's daughter to now in this place as an adviser to the Labor leader of a second-term government in this place. That is an absolute tribute to your mum. I just want to reflect on this moment with you, Kate, which I now realise has so much of your mum in it, which is when you were working with me: we were in an opposition backbench Senate team, and I remember Kate marching me on the blue carpet through the ministerial wing, and I said, 'Kate, why are we doing this? Why are you marching me on the blue carpet through the ministerial wing?' and she said, 'Because we're going to be here one day.' That was such a Crossin moment.

To Amanda, to Melinda, to Paul and to Mark, her beloved partner of so many years: we stand with you in your loss. We saw the strength of your family as you all came together, with Paul there as well in the church. We saw how much her grandchildren will miss their nan, and we know that Trisha's strength leaves you so much stronger for the journey ahead. Thank you for sharing her with us for so many years. You have our condolences. May Trish rest in power.