Wednesday, 4 February 2026

 Nathan LAMBERT (Preston) (10:06): I rise to acknowledge the passing of Tim Picton, who was well known to this place through his contribution to Victorian politics and the broader Australian Labor Party. Tim died as the result of an allegedly violent and unprovoked attack that occurred outside a Perth nightclub on 27 December at 5:30 am. I think it is important to say that Tim was actually someone who was very comfortable smoking Winfields outside a nightclub at 5:30 am. He was someone who for a long time had a bit of a Jim Morrison, young Bob Hawke kind of vibe to him. He was charismatic, he was iconoclastic; he liked people and people liked him. But his great magic was that he would then walk into the office or onto the campaign trail and he would be the same person. But he had this extraordinary drive and determination. He was effective and he was competitive in a real team captain sort of way. He brought people with him, and he had achieved more at age 36 than most of us will achieve in our lifetimes. At his memorial were two premiers, the Prime Minister and 680 of us who all thought we were amongst his closest friends. Our thoughts are with his brother Chris, his sister Jo, his wife Priya and his four-year-old daughter Charlotte. People say ‘Rest in peace’ or ‘Vale’ at these occasions, but I do not think Tim was ready for that, and so I will just say that we will miss him, we will miss what he was and we will miss what he would have been.