While she thanked her family, partner and children, and political mentors, former chief minister Jon Stanhope and former NSW deputy premier John Watkins, in her first speech to the Senate on Wednesday night; Senator Gallagher also singled out Margaret Gillespie, her now chief of staff, and Wendy Caird, now deputy chair of Icon Water and a former national secretary of the Community and Public Sector Union.

Senator Gallagher said in her speech: "These women met me when I was at my lowest point in life – I was unemployable and they gave me the dignity of a job. I am forever thankful for the potential they saw in me and for the time they invested to get me back on track."

Ms Gillespie was managing the national office of the CPSU in Canberra and Ms Caird was the national secretary in 1997 when Senator Gallagher's then-fiance Brett Seaman died after being hit by a car while cycling. Mr Seaman had been due to start a job with the union as an industrial organiser. Ms Gallagher was pregnant with their child Abby, working elsewhere as an advocate for people with disabilities.

"It became clear to me I could not go back into that [other] workplace because I had to look after people there and I couldn't look after anyone at that time," Senator Gallagher said on Friday. "I was completely grief-stricken."

She was offered an administrative job at the CPSU where she met Ms Gillespie.

"I don't know how orchestrated it was, but Margaret came to me day one and asked me to collect the mail and day two to collect the mail and something else, day three something else. After a month, it was 'Could you organise a phone hook-up?'. They were very straight-forward, uncomplicated tasks and over time, it became really my safe place to go. Because it was with people who didn't know me before the accident, so didn't feel that personal loss. And it was a place I could escape to."

Ms Caird, who now has a homewares shop in the Kangaroo Valley, said she believed in the then-young single mother.

"We just wanted to give her the chance to do some work and get out of the house and have people around her who cared for her," she said. "It was a step on the way to recovery for her. I've always seen immense potential in Katy. Great talent, a lot of intellect and a lot of warmth as well. And all of that has really been borne out."

Senator Gallagher said she went on maternity leave from the union the day before she gave birth to Abby.

"I wouldn't leave in the end," she said, with a laugh. "Margaret said to me, 'You have to go and have the baby.' The other thing Wendy did, even though I'd only been working there for six months, was give me three months' paid maternity and ask me to come back at the end of it."

Ms Gillespie said they bonded not least because she had a daughter and Ms Gallagher, as a first-time mother, had plenty of questions about what to expect.

"I think we just struck up a genuine friendship at the time," she said, saying Ms Gallagher went on to become an effective union organiser.

When Ms Gallagher became chief minister in mid-2011, she asked Ms Gillespie to become her chief of staff. Ms Gillespie was retired after spending 17 years with the union, finishing as deputy national secretary. She continued as Ms Gallagher's chief of staff when she moved to the Senate earlier this year. And she is not surprised by the rise of her former charge.

"I think Katy's talents are so obvious, they'll come to be recognised," Ms Gillespie said.

Senator Gallagher also thanked two friends of Brett's – Mike Samaras, now director of policy for NSW Opposition Leader Luke Foley and Stephen Jones, the Labor Member for Throsby. Mr Samaras is Abby's "atheist godfather" and Mr Jones went to uni with Brett.

"[Abby] must have all these questions about [her father] that I can't answer or she doesn't want to ask me and it's been important to keep those two close in particular. You know, what was he like at uni? What music did he like? There's a whole range of things she just never got to know," Senator Gallagher said.

And as for the future? Senator Gallagher reiterated she wasn't in parliament to "warm the seat" but dismissed recent Katy for PM talk on the twitterverse of Q@A. "I've got to earn my spot basically. I don't expect to be fast-tracked anywhere. I've got to knuckle down and do hard work and that doesn't bother me," she said.