Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

Simon Crean—a friend; never a foe. He was, as the member for Gorton has just described, a role model. I want to put on record how he was a role model to me. I came to this place in 2010, a backbencher—not like Simon, who was a frontbencher from day 1. I was a mere, humble—or perhaps not so humble—backbencher from the Riverina, a different state to Simon. I was from New South Wales; he was very much a Victorian. To this day, I don't know why he gave me the time that he did, but I'm thankful for it.

I can recall that I kept bumping into him and one of his frontbench colleagues in the hallway. I'd always say hello and be very respectful to the other Labor leading light. I'd barely get a grunt out of that person, although later, when I became Deputy Prime Minister, we'd talk and it was good. But Simon, from the get-go, whenever I'd see him in the hallway, I'd say, 'Hello, Minister,' very respectfully, and he'd always give me time and always say hello. One day, on one particular morning, the other person walked past. This other person was in a very prominent role. I said good morning, and that person barely bothered to look at me. Simon was following just behind. I said: 'Good morning, Minister. How are you, Simon?' He stopped. You could tell he was in a hurry—I think it was party room time—but he stopped, and he said, 'You know, I don't agree with much or any of what you say, but you say it with such passion.' He said, 'Why don't you come up to my office this afternoon after question time at four o'clock, and let's have a chat? Let's have a cup of tea.' His staff member said, 'But, Minister, Mr Crean, you have such and such at four o'clock.' And he said, 'I have it now; I've got the member for Riverina.' She was quite insistent, 'No, no, but this is—' and he said, 'I've given the member for Riverina the assurance that we need to talk.' He said, 'You and I need to talk.'

So, at four o'clock, I went to the minister's office. I was a bit nervous, I have to say. He was a leading light in the Labor Party. I couldn't think why then, and I still don't know why, he wanted to give me such time. But he gave me such advice, such wisdom, and he was so warm and caring. He gave me assurances: 'You need to be bipartisan. You need to look beyond your own party. You need to look beyond your own constituency. And you need to be, as you are, always yourself.' From that time forward, Simon always put his arm around me, in a figurative sense, and was most interested in my progress through the parliament. He didn't need to, but he did, and it's extraordinary. It's strange. Why would a Labor member do that to somebody from the other side, somebody from the opposition, somebody who was really, quite frankly, a no-one, when he wasn't a no-one? He was somebody important. He was somebody who the nation looked up to for direction, leadership and guidance. Yet here he was, going out of his way to coach, to tutor, to mentor a backbencher from the National Party. Go figure! But that's Simon Crean. We formed a good and close friendship that day.

In 2012, I was driving to parliament one afternoon, because parliament was sitting the next day. I got a frantic call from my former deputy editor at the Daily Advertiser newspaper at Wagga Wagga, who quite frantically said: 'I have to put an editorial together, and I don't have time. Can you do one for me?' It was Peter Mahoney. I said, 'Peter, if you have already forgotten, I'm now a member of parliament. It has been some years, about eight years, since I've done that. Besides, why would you ask me to do that?' He said, 'Because I haven't got time to do it.' He said: 'I've got no staff. People are away. Can you please just do it? I don't even care if you write yourself up; just do it.' I thought to myself: 'Here's a good opportunity. I could write an opinion piece in my local newspaper and promote myself!' And so I wrote this piece, and then Peter put his own slant on it. It was under the heading, in the edition of 14 June 2012, 'Regionalism is good for all Australia'. The editorial reads:

The Riverina, and in particular, Griffith and Wagga are helping to boost the significance of regionalism.

In recent weeks Griffith City Council has instigated the demand for another dam in the Murray-Darling Basin while in Wagga, member for Riverina Michael McCormack organised a highly progressive forum on high-speed rail last week and put on notice his intention to run a forum on dams construction—

I couldn't have written it better myself!—

The fact that both these issues have gained impetus from major centres like Griffith and Wagga underlines the importance of regionalism in the nation's development. Despite preoccupation with the mining industry, manufacturing, transport and agricultural development in regional and rural Australia remain vital and central to the country's growth.

It's what federal Minister for Regional Development Simon Crean calls "joining the dots"; partnerships between governments of all three levels and the private sector. More usage of rail, the need to upgrade it and, eventually, get as much off-road is seen by Crean as essential to regional development.

Investing in infrastructure is not something governments can be left to do on their own any more, Crean told those at the intermodal freight and logistics hub announced in Wagga.

Crean obviously practises what he preaches. His department has worked with Wagga council on the commercial precinct at the airport; the NBN roll-out both for the fibre option within the city and the fixed wireless component elsewhere, the intermodal freight hub, council's energy-saving lighting program and investment in the base hospital.

The next day, with this editorial printed and in hand, I went to Mr Crean and said, 'Look at what the local paper has printed.' He looked at it, read it and said: 'That's pretty good. That sounds like something you had a hand in!' We joked, and that was all well and good. A week later, he got a question in question time from Janelle Saffin, the former member for Page. The question was:

My question is to the Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government and Minister for the Arts—

Simon, amongst other things, had so many portfolios that I would have hated to have seen his business card; it probably would have been an A3 sheet!—

Will the minister update the House on the most recent round of grants under the Regional Development Australia Fund and how this is being received in regional Australia? Further, why is this fund important to the future of regional communities?

If you can imagine, the Nationals in the room are all going for him. Simon got the answer and, of course, he started off very well, 'I thank the member for Page for her question,' and he talked about how he was in Ballina not that long ago and talked about farmers and all sorts of things in the question. Of course, he's getting what for—he mentioned Barnaby Joyce in the answer—and he was just copping it from the opposition, particularly the regional members. Then he came out with this one:

Persistence, though, is also important because 62 per cent of these initiatives were projects that failed the first round. The member for Riverina knows the initiative in Wagga Wagga and he was very proud to come and give me the editorial from the Daily Advertiser, which was ringing our praises for what we did.

Of course, Warren Truss, the Leader of the Nationals, looked down the aisle and at me. On his way out, Simon gave me a bit of a wink and put the piece of paper back in his pocket. Warren came up to me and said, 'What was that all about?' But it was hard for me as a backbencher to tell the Leader of the National Party, 'Well, Simon and I had this special relationship, you see, and I thought I'd give him a good plug.' Indeed, I did, and I'm glad that I did because he deserved it. He was, as the member for Gorton just indicated, a very good regional development minister.

When Simon unsuccessfully challenged—and it was supposed to be with Kevin Rudd—the leadership of Julia Gillard, in 2013, I can well remember walking past the press conference that Simon did in the Mural Hall and thinking, 'What's this all about?' I got a bit of an inclination that something was afoot. Of course, as we now know, he hadn't read the text that Mr Rudd had sent him to say that this wasn't going to happen today, and, of course, it all went asunder, and Simon lost his ministry.

I can well recall that night. I stupidly—cheekily; call it what you like—bought a bottle of wine from the parliamentary gift shop which had 'The Backbencher' on it. I signed it, saying, 'Thank you for your efforts and your work for regional Australia,' and went and gave it to him. He was sitting in his office, and everybody had gone. He and I were there in his office while he was packing up the last remnants of his ministry paperwork et cetera, and here was this bloke from the Riverina giving him a bottle of wine with 'backbencher' on it. I think it was probably one of those 'too soon' moments, but he appreciated it. I well know how harsh politics can be. I found that out later. When you lose a ministry, you're out there, left all on your own, and you probably find out who your true friends are at that point in time. And he was a true friend of mine. When I learned of his death, I was so upset. I was and so was my wife, Catherine, because we knew just how much he meant not only to his wife, Carole, and his family but, indeed, to our nation and to the Labor family.

And I will say to the Labor family I well remember when our daughter, Georgina, moved to Melbourne. I was talking to Simon, and he said: 'There's always a door. If I can open any door for Georgina, I'm happy to do so. If she ever needs someone to go shopping with, my wife's there. If ever she needs even a bed to stay, my home is hers.' That is unusual. I know we have this camaraderie across the chamber and we talk about it, but he took it to the next level. He was a wonderful, wonderful human being, a beautiful man, and I will say that I did, in a sense, love him dearly, because he taught me how to be a politician.

It's the rare qualities that he had that are needed more than ever in this place. For somebody who was in as high a position as he was, as I said, to reach across and to befriend someone such as me and to show someone such as me the ropes and how it should be done, I am forever in debt to him. May he rest in peace because he was an amazing, remarkable person way beyond what this place usually produces. My sympathies, my condolences, my heartfelt emotions go out to his family, to his friends. Vale, Simon Findlay Crean.

See this speech in context