Prime Minister speaks at late Labor MP’s funeral
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has paid tribute to the late Labor MP Peta Murphy, who died after a lengthy battle with breast cancer. The PM joined hundreds of Ms Murphy's friends, family and colleagues at a funeral service at the MCG.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00 Peter Murphy was a cherished member of our Labor family. A proud trade unionist, a wonderful
00:07 staffer, a magnificent candidate, an outstanding local member, a brilliant parliamentarian
00:16 and the very best kind of colleague and friend. Above and beyond all this, she was the darling
00:26 daughter of Bob and Jan, the beloved sister of Penny and Jodie and the perfect partner
00:33 to Rod. All of you have been in our thoughts in the terribly sad days that have followed
00:40 Peter's passing. On Wednesday last week, we recalled the Parliament to pay tribute to
00:46 Peter's memory. Eighty-three members of the House of Representatives took the opportunity
00:52 to speak, to share their memories of the brilliant, funny, courageous and caring person that we
00:59 have gathered to mourn here today. There are some members of Parliament whose contribution
01:05 earns the grudging respect of the Chamber. There are others, much rarer, who win the
01:12 genuine admiration and real affection across the political spectrum. Peter Murphy was one
01:19 of these. It is so hard, so cruel, so unfair to think that we will never see her bright
01:26 and shining smile again. Never hear that raucous laugh. Never again feel your spirits lift
01:35 when Peter entered a room. Never again listen as Peter the happy warrior wades into a debate
01:44 or steers a committee hearing with that extraordinary combination that she had of intellect, integrity
01:51 and, importantly, empathy. And we will never again get told off for making fun of squash.
02:00 Every tribute paid to Peter has, quite rightly, spoken of how hard she worked, how much she
02:12 achieved in such a short period of time, how much better her community and our nation were
02:19 for her contribution. And yet a profound part of the grief that we feel today is not just
02:27 what we have been deprived of someone we deeply loved. It is that Australia has been denied
02:35 more of what Peter had to give. It is so true to Peter's character that she channelled her
02:42 personal battle with breast cancer into public policy, never thinking of herself, always
02:51 tenaciously advocating for others, championing better services and more work on early detection
03:02 and a national register for metastatic cancer. Seeing herself as privileged because she could
03:09 set an example, she could be visible, she could give heart to those in the same fight.
03:18 In all this I want to make the point that while everyone admired the grace and courage
03:24 Peter showed in her struggle, every one of us knew she was so much more than what she
03:31 endured. Her brilliant legal career, so often in the service of those with nowhere else
03:38 to turn, had grounded in her an extraordinary capacity to absorb an issue and to advocate
03:45 with great force and deep understanding. We saw that when she argued against the idea
03:53 of women fleeing family violence being made to draw on their own super just to support
03:59 themselves. We saw it this year when she led the charge on reducing the harm caused by
04:06 online gambling. It says so much that everyone involved in that long multi-party committee
04:12 process has always referred to the final product as simply the Murphy Report.
04:19 And alongside all those gifts in policy and advocacy, Peter excelled in the first responsibility
04:27 of every Member of Parliament. She was an absolutely wonderful local MP. She had an
04:34 eagle eye on every local project, an encouraging word for every community organisation and
04:40 every sporting club. She was so proud to be the first woman to represent an electorate
04:46 named after a trailblazing woman. And she took the strong view that school children
04:52 in her community were never too young to learn about Louisa Dunkley's campaign for equal
04:58 pay for equal work. What all of us loved about Peter is what her
05:05 constituents loved too. They admired her determination. They could sense her pride in the community,
05:12 her passion to deliver and they responded, above all, to her absolute authenticity.
05:20 [BLANK_AUDIO]