The Victorian Liberal Tim Smith says a drink-driving crash that led to him announcing his retirement occurred on the day he discovered that his “best friend” – the Labor MP Jane Garret, who died last month – had a cancer recurrence.
On Wednesday morning Smith and state MPs from across the political divide paid tribute to the former emergency services minister, who died from breast cancer. She was 49.
Condolence motions in both houses of parliament came after the Andrews government announced a state memorial service would be held in Garrett’s honour on 2 September.
In an emotion-filled speech, Smith said “no one has had a bigger influence” on his life than Garrett.
“There was no one you’d want more in a trench with you,” he said. “She was my inspiration. Jane was my best friend.”
Smith will retire from politics at the November election after crashing his luxury car into a Hawthorn home last October while driving at more than twice the legal blood-alcohol limit.
In his speech, he revealed that the night he “disgraced himself was the day he was told ‘that her cancer had come back’”.
“I’m not trying to, in any way, take away from my own responsibilities, my own behaviour, but that’s the fact,” he said.
“I knew the prognosis was very bad and I knew deep down that I never would see her again and I didn’t … just how she’s not here is still something I can’t come to terms with.”
Smith served as the mayor for Stonnington – in Melbourne’s inner south-east – at the same time Garrett was the mayor of neighbouring council, Yarra.
A single yellow rose was placed on Garrett’s seat in the upper house during the speeches as her family watched the tributes.
The premier, Daniel Andrews, told Garrett’s children that their mother had made a “big and important” contribution to the state.
The opposition leader, Matthew Guy, said Garrett had become a “hero” of Country Fire Authority firefighters.
Garrett, who served as member for Brunswick and for Eastern Victoria, quit cabinet in mid-2016 in protest at a firefighters’ union pay deal. The deal gave the United Firefighters Union greater power over the Country Fire Authority.
She began serving as an MP in 2010 and was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2016, and announced late last year she would not stand for re-election in November.
A memorial service will be held at the Brunswick town hall in Melbourne’s inner north.
Garrett is survived by her children, Molly, Sasha and Max, and her husband, James.
