Zoe McKenzie (Flinders, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The extraordinary gift of this job is that you get to take ordinary people and immortalise them in words spoken in this place so that, forever, their goodness will be remembered and a source of comfort for those who loved them. So today I rise to speak about my friend Jim Ryan. Jim died on 28 August this year, and his life was celebrated by friends and family in a beautiful ceremony on Arthurs Seat on 13 October.

I met Jim on Main Street in Hastings during the last election campaign. He was selling Anzac Day badges, a thing he did every year. He greeted me like he was my grandfather. 'I was waiting for you,' he said, knowing full well that my new life as the candidate for Flinders would lead me to his feet one day.

Jim was a great volunteer in life. He was there for every single cause, like the Red Hill Show, where he was the vice-president; Second Bite; and, indeed, the Liberal Party, where he was the driver of the 'Briony bus' during Briony Hutton's contest for Hastings at the state election. He was there every day on prepoll for me too, handing out how-to-vote cards. But mostly he was just there filling my heart each and every time I saw him.

Jim was one of those characters that so beautifully exemplify the Mornington Peninsula: resilient, kind eyed, generous and loved, quiet and unassuming, and so classy in his glorious simplicity and selflessness. I will miss you forever, my dear friend Jim.

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