Thursday, 15 August 2024

Inga Peulich

Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (09:56): I too wish to join in and send my condolences to the family of Inga Peulich. Inga is someone who was not only a colleague but also a friend. I first knew Inga long before I came into Parliament – as a member of the Liberal Party in the south-eastern suburbs and then as the member for Bentleigh from 1992 to 2002 and then she joined us here in the Legislative Council again from 2006 to 2018. Serving 10 years as the member for Bentleigh and 12 years here in the upper house I am fairly certain makes Inga the second-longest serving Liberal female MP in the history of the Victorian Parliament, second to Louise Asher. But it is a title I might wrestle off her before the end of this term of Parliament, and that would have been something that Inga would have appreciated, that battle.

Inga was someone who was very, very passionate. We all know that she was extremely passionate. Unfortunately, I was unable to make her funeral last Thursday due to work commitments, but I was able to tune into some parts of the service online. When they described her as an unstoppable force, I thought that that was really the perfect way to describe Inga, because she was an unstoppable force. When Paul said that her favourite saying was ‘Failure is not falling down but staying down,’ that was Inga to a tee. She would get up and live to fight another day, and I think we all appreciated that level of commitment and that spirit from Inga, which was born in her young life, having been born in a communist regime and escaping communism from Yugoslavia, coming here as a nine-year-old – I think she was – with no English and virtually no money and no possessions and making the most of a life here in Australia. She always fought for those freedoms of individuals, those rights to freedom of association and freedom of religion. She was someone who was very fiercely against being over-regulated and overbearing governments, having had that experience of communism.

Inga was not only a fierce advocate here in the Parliament, she was a fierce advocate in her community, even when she was not a member of Parliament, and a great contributor to the Liberal Party. Between her two terms of Parliament she actually served as the vice-president of the Liberal Party. She is someone that will be sadly missed. As Mr Davis said, she made a great contribution to the Liberal Party winning government in 2010 by selecting candidates in the south-east and running campaigns in those seats in the south-east that helped us get to government. I send my deepest condolences to her beloved husband Savo; to the light of her life, Paul, and his wife Primrose; to her mother Nena; and to her extended family and her many, many friends.