Thursday, 29 August 2024

 Natalie HUTCHINS (Sydenham – Minister for Jobs and Industry, Minister for Treaty and First Peoples, Minister for Women) (10:03): I rise to pay tribute to Cr Sarah Helen Carter, the first woman elected three times as mayor of Maribyrnong, who spent 16 years fighting for the residents of Melbourne’s west. She was the council’s gender equality ambassador since 2011, and she won multiple awards during her time as a councillor. Fighting for women within the Labor Party to be preselected was one of her badges of honour. She joined the board of Gender Equality Victoria earlier this year, and she was employed in her day job by Save the Children – an NGO improving children’s lives around the world. She did an amazing job at saving young people’s lives.

When Sarah spoke, she did it with understanding, compassion and intelligence. Whether it was about planning permits or predeparture briefings for those MPs she was taking overseas to see developing nations, Sarah knew how to make you understand the whole issue. She was captivating, she was brilliant and she was full of the belief that if you worked hard, then anything was possible. She showed us who we could be and, most importantly, who we should be. She was well supported across the Labor caucus here and in federal Parliament. She had compassion, determination and pure joy in her heart. She will be greatly missed by her Labor family. Vale, Sarah Carter.