Former Victorian Labor Minister Lynne Kosky has been farewelled at a state funeral in Williamstown.

Ms Kosky died from breast cancer last week at the age of 56.

• Former Minister Lynne Kosky passes away

She held the transport, education and arts portfolios in the Bracks and Brumby governments.

Former Premier Steve Bracks speaks during the ceremony. Photo: AAP

Former premier Steve Bracks told mourners she was a passionate MP who would be remembered for her commitment to universal education.

“Lynne experienced the transformational power of education and wanted to ensure that the same opportunity was available to others, no matter what their background, or their postcode,” he said.

He said Ms Kosky was determined to work for an even playing field.

“Lynne Kosky has left her mark on Victoria, on Melbourne’s west, and on so many of us who had the privilege and pleasure to know her,” he said.

“It is a chance to honour a friend of us all, a beacon to future generations of women in particular who want to be activists, not commentators, real agents for change.”

Western Bulldogs football club president Peter Gordon said he met Ms Kosky when they were teenagers in Melbourne’s west.

He said she was instrumental in helping to save the club in the 1980s.

“She never doubted her capacity, nor flinched in her resolve to bring about positive change,” he said.

“We mourn but we also celebrate, the life of a girl who played tennis as a teenager at the Victorian Railways Institute and went on to run the transport ministry.

“Of the young woman who started her career as a community education officer in Yarraville and went on to become the education minister.”

Ms Kosky was born in Spotswood in Melbourne’s west and attended Footscray High School. She later studied arts and social work at Melbourne University.

In 1981, she began her career as a social worker at the education department and was later appointed policy officer in the Department of Youth Affairs.

She was elected to Footscray City Council in 1986 and served as mayor.

Ms Kosky was first elected to State Parliament in 1996, in the Lower House seat of Altona, in Melbourne’s west.

She retired from politics in 2010 and served as as an advisor to the Vice Chancellor of Victoria University in the western suburbs.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews read out a poem at the service and laid a wreath.