Stefan Romaniw
Matthew GUY (Bulleen) (16:34): I rise to make some comments about Stefan Romaniw, who in the break received a state funeral, fittingly, where the Premier and Minister Shorten spoke. Stefan was a former chair of the Victorian Multicultural Commission. He was a former head of Australian Ukrainian organisations, both state and federal. He was a man of immense talent and of immense skill and apart from that a very, very good personal friend to many, many people. He was someone who saw the best in our state, saw the best in every community. He was someone who, more than any – and I do not take away from others – if a funeral from our state was to go toward just an ordinary bloke who was doing his best to make our state a better place for all of our children, it was Stefan Romaniw.
He was a man that so many of us in the Ukrainian community, and I personally, looked up to immensely. While at just 68 years he passed away in Warsaw, not a minute of his life did he waste. He was always up; he was always awake. It was not always about politics or Ukraine, it could be any topic; he was there to talk to you at any stage you needed it as the true gentleman that he was. And that is what he was – a gentleman. His funeral fittingly reflected the life of the outstanding person he was. Stefan Elkovich Romaniw: Стефан Ілковіч Романів. Наш друг. Наш голова. Наш героі. Вічная Памʼять. God bless him.