Tuesday, 16 August 2022

Tony Driscoll

Ms GREEN (Yan Yean) (13:16): I rise today to pay tribute to the life of Tony Driscoll, who was the wonderful mayor of Northern Grampians shire, and I will miss him very much—his friendship, his wise counsel. He was a husband to Annette and a father to Eliza, James and Josephine, and there were his wonderful grandchildren, and he was a brother to Kate, Gabe, Winnie and Justin. In celebrating requiem mass in St Arnaud, his brother Justin, Father Justin Driscoll, described Tony’s commitment to his community as not just a commitment, it was a vocation. You could really see that he lived for and loved his community, and the number of people that were there really demonstrated that. The funeral book just showed that he was so comfortable, whether it was with the people that he dealt with when he worked at the siloes, giving many farmers advice and support in good times and bad, or mixing with the wonderful staff at Northern Grampians, prime ministers, premiers, including Premier Andrews, and also princes—Prince Edward. He was just so much more than all the things that I could say in these 90 seconds, and it was one of the most beautiful requiem masses I have ever been to. He was just such a wonderful human being, taken too soon. To my shock I discovered that one of my best schoolfriends, Bernie Kelly, was his first cousin. Vale, Tony Driscoll.