Page 3187 - Week 10 - Thursday, 25 September 2014
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The shock and the pain of Kurt’s death have been felt deeply in this place, around Canberra, and across Australia. It is just hard to know how to respond. We are hurting, we miss our friend, and we are looking for something positive. All I can find that speaks to me, and I spoke of this on Friday at the service, are some very powerful words from Barack Obama, which I will paraphrase again today: we can respond by living our lives as best we can, with purpose, with love and with joy; we can use each day to show those who are closest to us how much we care about them; we can learn from our mistakes and grow from our failures; we can strive at all costs to make a better world so that some day, if we are blessed with the chance to look back on our time here, we will know that we have spent it well, that we have made a difference, and that our fleeting presence has had a lasting impact on the lives of others.
Kurt has had a lasting impact on us. This is how he lived his life. We are all the better for having known him. We will never forget him. He will continue to inspire us. Rest in peace, my dear friend.
MS GALLAGHER (Molonglo—Chief Minister, Minister for Health, Minister for Higher Education and Minister for Regional Development): I would like to begin by acknowledging Jayne, Philip and Chris Steel in the gallery today. Thank you for coming. We are also thinking of the rest of your family who are not able to be here—of course, Kurt’s sister—and all of Kurt’s friends, some of whom join us today but who we know are spread right around Australia and around the world. In the four weeks since Kurt’s death you have all been constantly in our thoughts. It is a loss and a grief nobody should have to suffer, a treasured part of your lives which cannot be replaced. We wish we could do more, knowing that our tributes can only offer limited comfort.
During Kurt’s funeral service, we heard three very beautiful speeches about the way Kurt gave so generously to his family and friends. He kept a social calendar which could be tiring just to read, but also managed to be there for those he loved and who loved him—always there, always giving, an essential figure in his loving family.
To his friends Kurt offered the same warmth, a sense of adventure, energy and inclusiveness, through which they always felt connected to him and of which we heard from his close friends at his funeral. As many of us grow older, some friendships tend to fade, but this rule of thumb seemed not to have applied to Kurt, whose loss has been felt so deeply—from the school communities of Melrose High School and Canberra College to the University of Canberra; the Canberra Raiders; the Labor Party and the broader labour movement, particularly the many committees on which Kurt served and the Canberra South Sub-branch; and, of course, here in the Legislative Assembly.
In recent weeks his legacy has been acknowledged in the Australian and New South Wales parliaments, and it is right that a written record of this Assembly will show from here on the contribution Kurt Steel made to his beloved city of Canberra and his beloved Labor Party.
Few 25-year-olds have made such an impression on so many people. If ever there was a testament to the need for youth, enthusiasm, creativity, optimism, fun and
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