Wednesday, 30 July 2025

James ‘Jimmy’ Mentor

Anthony CIANFLONE (Pascoe Vale) (10:03): It is with great sadness that I rise today to acknowledge the passing of and pay tribute to James Mentor, who was born on 16 October 1986 and passed away on 10 June 2025. James, or ‘Jimmy’ as he was known to many of us within the labour movement, was the truest of the true believers. I first met Jimmy in Victorian Young Labor when we attended our first Labor Unity caucus meeting upstairs over the road at the Imperial Hotel in around May 2008, just after he saw the light and defected from the National Union of Workers. The pub, politics, blended in with watching the Pies via the Melbourne Cricket Club – that was Jimmy in his element.

As described by Senator Raff Ciccone, Jimmy will be remembered for his warmth, wisdom and his love for a chat and a laugh over a cold beer, never seeking the spotlight yet always there to campaign and help advance the Labor cause and the Labor Unity cause. As described by good friend Xavier Williams, Jimmy joined everything and attended everything. He was always very generous with his time. For me, he never hesitated over the years in showing up, helping out and campaigning throughout Wills or Pascoe Vale. As a long-time local constituent, having lived in Woolacott Street in Coburg, he may have been raised in the south-east but his heart belonged in the north. He regularly raised his grievances with local councillors Lambros Tapinos and Annalivia Carli, and he was always the first to show up and last to leave many of our local fundraisers and events over the years – whether at the old Sollazzo Pizza Cafe on Sydney Road, the Reggio Calabria Club or the Vizzini Club, you could count on Jimmy to be there in support. As Xavier described, he was famous for driving an old 1980s Volvo station wagon. This was Jimmy to a tee: stable, reliable and solid as a rock. Jimmy’s life was celebrated in a very moving ceremony held at the MCG on 26 June.