NSW Labor leader Luke Foley has paid tribute to trailblazing former state MP Paul O'Grady, who has died aged 54.
NSW Labor on Sunday confirmed that Mr O'Grady, who in 1990 was the first Australian MP to publicly acknowledge his homosexuality, had passed away.
After being elected to parliament in 1988, Mr O'Grady resigned from the state's upper house in January 1996 after being diagnosed HIV positive, ending an eight-year career in politics.
Speaking on Sunday, Mr Foley said he was enormously saddened to hear of the death of his friend, Mr O'Grady.
"He was an adviser to me. He was somebody I respected for 25 years. I think of his enormous courage not only as the first openly gay member of parliament but also speaking about his battle with HIV," Mr Foley told AAP.
He pointed especially to Mr Grady's "enormously powerful" evidence to a parliamentary inquiry into the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes.
"Paul's evidence to that inquiry was so powerful that it went a long way to convincing all of the members of the inquiry from five different political parties to support the legalisation of cannabis for people with terminal illness," Mr Foley added.
Tributes for Mr O'Grady flowed on Twitter.
Labor's federal MP for Grayndler, Anthony Albanese, tweeted: "Vale Paul O'Grady - friend, political activist, supporter, Parliamentarian, brave leader who embraced life to the full- will be sadly missed".
NSW Labor MP for Charleston, Jodie Harrison, described Mr O'Grady as "a man who encouraged me and so many others in Young Labor".
"RIP Honourable Paul O'Grady," she tweeted.
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