Topics: Senator Linda White
10:05AM AEDT
1 March 2024
Cheng Lei: Victorian Labor Senator Linda White has passed away. We just heard the news from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Joining me now is Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Birmingham. [Senator] Birmingham, thank you so much for staying around. Of course, we did hear that rather moving tribute from the Prime Minister. What’s the reaction from the Opposition?
Simon Birmingham: Lei, the Coalition, sends all of its condolences and thoughts to Linda White’s family and friends, to her staff, her colleagues across the Labor Party and the wider Labor and trade union movement. Linda White was indeed a champion of many social justice causes. She dedicated her life to largely working through the trade union movement, and in the advance and cause of standing up for people in a range of difficult circumstances. She had a very short and far too short Senate career. But in that time, it was clear that Linda White was somebody who would never take a backward step when it came to fighting for what she believed was right. You always knew where she stood, but she was also a very effective Senator, even in such a short time, chairing the Senate Committee into the National Anti-Corruption Commission and working right across the Parliament with Liberal, National Party, Coalition, crossbench senators and others to achieve a unanimous report around how the NACC would work and that legislation would pass, which is a testament to an ability to work with others and to get things done in the national interest. The contribution she would have made to the Senate is one that no doubt will be missed by the Labor Party, and it will be missed by the nation too.
Cheng Lei: Thank you so much for those words and for your time today.
Simon Birmingham: Thanks, Lei.
Cheng Lei: That’s Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Birmingham joining us. And of course, may Linda White rest in peace.
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