Victorian Labor MP Jane Garrett has been remembered as a courageous and principled politician and a doting mother of three during a memorial service in Melbourne.
Family, friends and state and federal parliamentarians from across the political divide gathered at a state memorial at the Brunswick town hall – in the MP’s former electorate – on Friday morning to pay tribute to Garrett.
The former state emergency services minister died in July from breast cancer. She was 49.
Victorian upper house MP Mark Gepp – a close friend of Garrett’s – led the service and described her as principled, compassionate and courageous, saying she was one of “Victoria’s most respected daughters”.
More than 400 people attended the service, including the federal attorney general, Mark Dreyfus; the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews; opposition leader, Matthew Guy; and the state’s governor, Linda Dessau.
Former premiers Jeff Kennett, John Brumby and Steve Bracks also attended.
Bracks, for whom Garrett worked as an adviser between 2000 and 2004, said she “knew how to live”.
“She knew every moment mattered,” Bracks told mourners.
He said there was an “inevitability” about his former colleague’s quick career ascension from political adviser to cabinet minister. Garrett had been a rising star in the Labor party and was viewed as a potential future premier.
“She lived and breathed politics,” Bracks said.
“She could talk to anyone with a confidence and authority that belied her age.”
In an emotional tribute, close friend and former state Labor MP Sharon Knight said Garrett always “stayed upright even when she wanted to fall”.
The service featured a musical tribute from Tim Rogers, a friend of Garrett’s who first met the late MP when she was a teenager and said she had a “million megawatt smile”.
Former Rail, Tram and Bus Union state secretary Luba Grigorovitch said everyone in Garrett’s life was touched by her “special brand of star power”.
Grigorovitch volunteered for Garrett during her 2010 election campaign, when she went on to claim victory for the marginal seat of Brunswick. She said Garrett would welcome volunteers like they were “long-lost friends.”
She described Garrett as a political mentor for many young Labor women, and the “life of the party” who cherished a glass of champagne and the freedom of running.
Garrett entered Victorian parliament in 2010 after winning the inner-Melbourne seat of Brunswick, and was promoted to cabinet in 2014.
But she quit her role as the state’s emergency services minister in 2016 over a controversial firefighters union pay deal that gave the United Firefighters Union greater power over the Country Fire Authority.
Guy last month described Garrett as a “hero” of Country Fire Authority firefighters.
In 2018 she was elected to the state’s upper house as the member for Eastern Victoria.
Last year, Garrett announced she would leave politics at November’s state election.
Garrett is survived by her children, Molly, 19 Sasha, 15 and Max, 10 and her husband, James.
