CONDOLENCES
Senator CAROL BROWN (Tasmania) (15:56): I rise to, on behalf of the Tasmanian Labor team, pay tribute to Senator Kay Denman, a life member of the Tasmanian branch of the Labor Party—our highest honour. Kay was a proud Tasmanian. She grew up in Railton, a small town where the cement works were part of everyday life.
Like so many people in that community, she did not grow up knowing the danger that asbestos posed. As a child, Kay and the other local children played around the cement works and in the waste dumps. As she later recalled, they would use the materials to build things and even throw it at each other.
Workers would come home from the factory with their clothes covered with asbestos dust, and the material was part of the fabric of everyday life in the town. It is difficult for us now to imagine that this could have been considered normal, but Kay carried those memories with her, and, as she grew older, she saw the terrible consequences for people she knew and for the community she loved.
Mesothelioma and other asbestos related diseases touched the lives of many in Railton, and Kay became a determined advocate for those who were suffering. Her advocacy was not abstract. It came from knowing the people and knowing the place.
She understood that behind every statistic was a person, a family and a community carrying the consequences of decisions made many years before. That particular connection gave her advocacy a particular strength. She continued to pursue the issue throughout her time in the Senate and beyond.
In fact, when she reflected on leaving parliament, one of the things that concerned her most was that she would no longer be able to continue advocating for people affected by asbestos related diseases. That was Kay. Her politics always came back to people.
Her advocacy for people with disability grew from her community work, including from her involvement in the Mersey Leven Family Day Care committee, where she fought for children with disabilities to have access to day care. Her support for gay and lesbian rights came at a time when speaking up on those issues was not always easy, but she stood with people affected by HIV and AIDS and remained involved with the Tasmanian Council on AIDS and Related Diseases long after she left parliament, and they made her a life member of TasCARD.
She cared deeply about health, mental health, education, social welfare and access to services. These weren't simply terms on a political agenda; they were people. That is why Kay's contribution was sometimes quiet but never insignificant.
As one of her Senate colleagues said in their valedictory tribute, Kay was not someone who sought the limelight. She was someone who made sure that the voices of compassion, caring and her local community were heard. I think that helps explain something very special about Kay.
Even after she left the Senate, she never really stopped. Even while living at Meercroft Care aged-care centre, her interest in politics never left her. Anne Urquhart, member for Braddon, who is in the chamber today, has spoken about her conversations with Kay, the kind of one-on-one conversations where you could sit down with Kay and, in Anne's own words: 'You very quickly find yourself talking about politics, current affairs and whatever was happening in the world.
Kay wanted to know, she wanted to discuss it, and, of course, she wanted to give you her view. Those conversations were never just small talk. They were expressions of who Kay was.
She remained interested in the world around her, she remained engaged with public life, and she remained wonderfully opinionated. There was still that spark in her. She would ask questions, challenge an argument, tell you what she thought and quite often leave you with something to think about.
That was one of the things that made Kay such a wonderful person to talk to, and she maintained that connection with the Senate itself. She would text during question time to let Anne know she was watching. If the House of Representatives was being broadcast instead of the Senate, she was not happy, because the Senate was special to Kay.
It had been such an important part of her life. It was there where she had fought for people and causes she believed in and where she'd been able to bring the experiences of her community into the national party.' Even years later, Kay still wanted to know what was happening there. She was still watching, still listening, still forming an opinion and still caring.
Perhaps that is how I will remember Kay most warmly—not simply as Senator Denman, not just the woman who represented Tasmania for 12 years, but as Kay, a woman with an extraordinary curiosity about people and the world around her, a woman who cared deeply about fairness and compassion and a woman who would make an ordinary conversation feel important simply because she was genuinely interested in what you had to say.
Her political life was an extension of that character. She listened to people. She understood their experiences, and then she tried to do something about them.
That is a wonderful legacy, and it is one that Tasmanian Labor can be proud of. I extend our deepest condolences to Kay family, her friends and all those who loved her. We will remember her with great affection and great pride.
Vale Kay Denman.