ADJOURNMENT

Senator McALLISTER (New South Wales—Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme) (19:29): I rise this evening to acknowledge the passing of Chris Raper, a lion of the Labor movement and deeply respected in our organisation. Chris was a peacemaker at a time when so many were warriors. His involvement in the Labor movement and the Labor Party was never about advancing his own political career or as a stepping stone into an elected role.

It was always about advancing the interests of union members—the contract cleaners, the home care workers, the security guards, the childcare workers that he represented—and he used every opportunity in his role within the Labor movement and the Labor Party to advance the interests of those people. Many people speak of his tenacious advocacy in every forum to meet with MPs and to seek commitments, sometimes very specific commitments, on the part of his members.

He always worked every opportunity selflessly and modestly behind the scenes for the members that he represented. That meant, of course, that he was widely respected across the Labor Party. In every contest that he ever participated in, he frequently overperformed against expectations, drawing votes from parts of the Labor Party where Chris or another candidate might not ordinarily have expected to receive support.

Some of the young people who worked with him as a union secretary speak about the tight ship that he ran. Everyone was expected to be at their desks by 8.15 in the morning. Chris was at his desk much earlier.

Organisers were expected to be out visiting cleaners and other members of the union as early as 6 am and then later at night meetings. Later on in his career, he would evolve into a highly respected senior public servant, a central figure in the government's liaison with the entire Labor movement, working in the interests of the people of New South Wales and always in the interests of the working people of New South Wales.

There are many in the Labor movement who deeply mourn Chris's passing, but none more so than his wife, Jenny, and their children, David, Gavin and Cameron. Vale, Chris Raper.