Rivers, Ms L.

The Hon. R.B. MARTIN (15:44): I am pleased to have the opportunity today to belatedly reflect that in July the SDA family lost a person very near and dear to us: Lyn Rivers, long a guiding light to our union and its people, was our branch president, our colleague and our friend.

A committed and loyal SDA member for over six decades, Lyn was elected to the SDA SA, NT and Broken Hill Committee of Management in the year 2000. She went on to serve as branch president for nearly 20 years. She worked closely with the SDA secretaries over the course of her service, spanning the SDA leadership terms of Don Farrell, Peter Malinauskas, Sonia Romeo and Josh Peak.

Lyn spent her childhood living on Dulkaninna Station on the Birdsville Track, 84 kilometres north of Marree, where her parents and grandmother worked. As a young person she drove cattle from Dulkaninna to Marree. Her young life on the station was one of significant responsibility and hard work. Despite limited opportunity for education, Lyn's thirst for knowledge was insatiable, as was her long love of reading. Lyn moved to Adelaide as a teenager in the 1960s and began working in a finishing factory. Lynn helped make sheets and pillowcases, handling rolls of fabric that stretched right across the factory floor. She worked three days a week, which was enough to cover her rent and some food but not much else.

When she was 16, Lyn's lifelong career in retail began. She started working at John Martin's, and in time she worked across all the major retailers in Adelaide, including Paynes, Myer, David Jones and, eventually, Harris Scarfe, where our paths crossed. I was a new organiser, and she sized me up and put me to the test. I worked with her in many different roles over the years, and Lyn always contributed and fought the good fight, selflessly putting others' needs before her own.

Being a union member was never a question for Lyn. Her mother's family was from Broken Hill, where it was ingrained at an early age that, whatever industry you worked in, you joined your union, and it was a benefit to us all that Lyn did so. She was always modest about her contribution to the SDA. She attributed her growing involvement in the union to the fact that she simply showed up every morning and that she was not afraid to take on her employers and speak out about what she described as any 'unsavoury things' that were happening.

Lyn made significant contributions to many of the SDA's wins over the years. She was a strong voice in campaigns around ending retail worker abuse, protecting penalty rates, changes to public holiday arrangements, and opposing mass deregulation of trading hours. Well into her later years, Lyn was tireless in her determination to see these campaigns through.

Lyn was a beacon of principle and purpose for SDA officials, staff and members. I am confident that we will continue to be guided by her example and that she will be remembered for many, many years for all that she did for the SDA. I extend my profound condolences to Lyn's family and friends, and indeed to all those across our community who knew and loved her. Rest well, Lyn, you have earnt it.