Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Skills and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to talk on this very important condolence motion about a friend and a Labor giant whose contribution to the labour movement, to public life and to this nation was quite simply as wide as it was deep. Simon Crean started as a mentor of mine, but we ended up as friends. I knew him for more than 30 years. When I was a relatively junior union official in the late eighties, Simon Crean was the president of the ACTU. That was at a time when union membership was about 50 per cent of the workforce. The ACTU, the peak body of the union movement, was at its strongest, and it was working very closely in cooperation with a then reforming Labor government, the Hawke government. At that time, the accord that was struck between the union movement, business and the Hawke government was absolutely critical to the economic reforms that people continue to talk about today.

As a co-architect of those reforms in the ACTU, along with the then secretary Bill Kelty, Simon Crean played an absolutely critical role in delivering the economic reform and helping deliver those reforms that were brought about by the Hawke-Keating governments. It was absolutely essential that he was president at that time. You needed people who understood the economy, understood the aspirations of working people and understood what was needed to bring about changes to improve this country's prospects. He was the right person, along with Bill Kelty, to be leader of the union movement at that time, and his contribution in that role was very significant. As a young person, I recall watching Simon on the news. He was well-known to the country well before he was 40 as the leader and spokesperson for the union movement.

He came from a remarkable Labor lineage. His father, Frank, was Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer under the Whitlam government—

Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

And the member for Melbourne Ports.

Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Skills and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

and the Member for Melbourne Ports, as I've been reminded. Of course Frank was a remarkable politician and a very successful minister and a critical one, who endured the 23 years in opposition and managed to return to become a cabinet minister.Growing up in a household like that with a father who was remarkably successful would have been informative and added some pressure about realising one's own ambitions, which is what happens if one of your parents or both of your parents are that successful.

Simon really did see his role as being a contributor to public life. Yes, he was a Labor person through and through, but he always thought beyond his own constituency. When he was an official of the storemen and packers he understood that, if workers are going to be better off, businesses have to thrive. He brought that understanding to the ACTU and brought that understanding to his contribution to establish an accord with the government that brought about economic growth and improvement in opportunities for many people in this country. And that was before he entered this place. He was already a very significant contributor to the national policy of this country.

The esteem in which he was held was so clearly obvious that on his first day in parliament in 1990 he was sworn in as a cabinet minister. I don't know of any other member of parliament who was a cabinet minister on their first day of parliament. In fact, so unusual was that that his first contribution to the parliament wasn't his first speech but was a second reading speech on a piece of legislation that he as the minister was responsible for. That's how early he elevated to the most senior roles in parliament and government in his time in this place.

Hawke had so much confidence in him that he was the minister for employment immediately upon arriving in this place. In his role as employment minister he brought about some very significant reforms in that portfolio. Who could be better placed to understand the needs of the economy, business, working people and unions than Simon Crean in a reformist government? Frankly, because of his experience, his ability, his diligence and his untiring efforts he managed to bring about some very significant reforms.

You might recall that for a part of that term we were going through a very significant recession with very high unemployment. Indeed, he worked on policies to make sure we reattached unemployed people to the labour market. Working Nation was a policy that was successfully capable of providing support to unemployed people so that they acquired the skills they needed to find ongoing, enduring work. The policies that he developed at that time when there was significantly high unemployment have been successively replicated and when they have been replicated they have led to very good outcomes.

I understand Simon's ability to stress test policy and to understand that ultimately we are in this place to make things happen and to make things work. Whatever other theatrics might go on in this place—and politics is full of those things, and that's okay too—he was very much someone who wanted to get things done. He showed that in his first term in parliament as a cabinet minister and he went on to take on other portfolios, including regional affairs. He was well regarded. I know that the member who is going to speak after me, Michael McCormack—and I apologise for not recalling your seat—

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

Riverina.

Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Skills and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My apologies. I know he will attest to the fact that, even in a constituency that wasn't naturally Labor, people held Simon in very high regard because of his sincerity, because he listened to their concerns and because he responded. He did that in any portfolio that he inhabited, including the arts portfolio, which is something that people didn't appreciate at the time to the extent that perhaps they should have appreciated it. His policy, Creative Australia, was reinvigorating the arts and cultural sectors of our society. He understood how critical it was that we told our own stories—that we supported those artists that do just that—and that if we made sure that we had a thriving arts community it's not only in our interests culturally and socially but economically too.

He very much understood the fact that to support the arts was to support Australia. I'll quote him, when he said:

Creative Australia is about creating excellence, creating jobs, creating prosperity, creating opportunity and creating unique Australian stories—

And he went on to say:

all vital to an outward looking, competitive and confident nation.

He understood that not only was it important for us culturally but he even understood the economic benefits that would flow if we supported the arts community. I'm very happy to say that the current government is following in his footsteps, as Tony Burke, the Minister for the Arts, has so clearly outlined recently in his tribute to Simon.

Whichever portfolio he held in whichever government—and he was a very unusual MP in that he happened to find himself a cabinet minister in four governments—he always dedicated himself to ensuring that there would be an enduring reform. Wherever you look in Simon's long, distinguished parliamentary career, you will see enduring policies that outlived his time in those portfolios. That was a testament to his dedication, diligence and unwavering passion about serving the public good. We can say that of Simon because that was in his DNA; he just felt that that was his role.

Can I say further to that, that beyond his time in parliament he also continued to contribute. As the Prime Minister said, he would seek Simon's counsel in a number of areas since he became Prime Minister. And Simon was always available to provide advice to each and every one of us in this place. Indeed, I had the good fortune of having access to his insight, his experience and his capacity to understand how to develop policies so that they led to good outcomes.

I also had the good fortune of sharing a residence with Simon Crean for many years, along with my good friend Warren Snowdon. In fact, I was getting sick of the furnished apartments I had to keep leaving at the end of the parliamentary week. I wanted to ensure that I found some permanent residence—to the extent that we have that here—while I was here. I found out when Senator Nick Bolkus was finishing up that he had a bedroom in a house, and that there were two other tenants: Simon Crean and Warren Snowdon. I applied for the tenancy and got the chance of living there. This was a good thing, because I could leave some of my belongings rather than taking them home at the end of each week. So in 2005 I moved into that place in Narrabundah, and for eight years I shared this residence with Simon Crean and Warren Snowdon. That was a very good decision of mine to be amongst such good company. At night we would make cups of tea, have a few biscuits, watch the news and sometimes have a conversation about the day's events. It was just the sort of company you like to have in this place—quite often it can be a lonely place for people. I found that moving there was a good thing but, really, having the chance to be with Simon and talking to him about public policy, talking to him about all sorts of matters politically, was great for me and also a friendship did form. It went from me being someone who was really listening to Simon and learning from him to finding ourselves in a very strong friendship. He was a great trekker and walker. I did go on a great walk with him and Carole and others—the Bay of Fires walk in Tasmania. We had dinners on New Year's Eve. Together, we would gather socially, and he was great, great company.

The last time I spent time with Simon was only in May this year. I'll finish on this story, but the story started in 2002, when I was about to deliver my first speech as a parliamentarian. My aunty flew over from Ireland to be here for that speech, and with her she had a book entitled Unsung Hero, about the Antarctic explorer Tom Crean. It was given to her by a woman called Mary Crean O'Brien, who was the 90-year-old daughter of this Antarctic explorer who'd explored with Captain Scott, Shackleton and others. She wanted me to deliver the book to Simon because she was absolutely assured that Simon was a relative of this Antarctic explorer, Tom Crean.

Simon had just taken on the role of opposition leader, one of the hardest roles, as we know, in politics, and after giving the speech I did provide Simon with this book and said Tom Crean's 90-year-old surviving daughter was convinced that Simon was a relative of this remarkable Antarctic explorer. He put the book down and said, 'I'll have a look at that,' but, of course, as he was always attentive to his work and given the workload that he had, he probably left it in abeyance for some time. He did come back to it and he did tell me later that his father did say that the Creans were from Kerry, in Ireland, and that's where Tom Crean was from.

The last time I met him was at Florentino, the oldest restaurant in Melbourne. He was sitting in his usual spot. He'd been going there for more than 60 years. His parents used to bring him there when it was perhaps a more modest restaurant. There he was, sitting there. This was on 2 May this year, only five or six weeks before his passing, and we discussed his trip to Ireland—that he was going to Ireland, to Annascaul in Kerry, to meet with the descendants of Tom Crean to establish the lineage, with his brother, David Crean. So David and Simon went to Ireland. We were going to catch up when he got back. He went to Ireland and then Scotland. He told me he and Carole were going to Germany after that. We never got to catch up or speak about his trip to Ireland, but I understand from David and others that they did establish links with that family.

And it's not surprising to me that Simon Crean would be related to a person who had the courage and endurance and tenacity and strength to be an Antarctic explorer. It makes perfect sense to me because, whatever Simon did in public life, whether it was as union leader or Labor leader, whether it was as cabinet minister or Labor elder, Simon was dedicated, he was diligent, he was sincere, he was courageous and he always put in a hundred per cent.

He is sorely missed by his family, of course, most of all. I was in India for the G20 and missed his funeral, which was a great disappointment to me. I did see Carole Crean in the chamber yesterday and I extended my deepest condolences to her, and I hope to catch up with her and David and others soon and I conveyed that to them.

Simon was a Labor giant. He was a magnificent contributor. And he reached beyond the Labor movement and the Labor Party and he would always look through the prism of what was good for this country. You could not choose a better role model in terms of conducting yourself in public life than one on the path of Simon Findlay Crean.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to 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.

Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's been a real privilege to hear the last two speakers talk about their very affectionate memories of Simon Crean. He certainly leaves a formidable legacy. I first encountered him as a young journalist here in Canberra, in the press gallery, when he was with the ACTU in the 1980s. We'd doorstop him on the way into meetings and we'd record the results on the way out, usually on the front steps of the old parliament. And these were the comings and goings of negotiating multiple rounds of the Prices and Incomes Accord with the then Hawke government, with Hawke and Paul Keating.

When I look back on these times, I didn't have the relationship that the member for Riverina had or the member for Gorton had, but I look back and think of what I was watching happening before me, and that was seeing Simon Crean and Storemen and Packers Union that he'd come from being pioneers in negotiating a superannuation system which really set the scene for what became a cornerstone of our superannuation system that we have today. The accord mark II, which I remember reporting on, really paved the way for that compulsory superannuation system. So I had the privilege of watching him change Australia.

I think much has been said about his principled decision to oppose the Howard government's decision to go to war in Iraq and how he articulated so clearly to the troops that his beef was not with them but was with the government. That has been much remarked on since his very sad passing. But I want to talk about his arts legacy that he leaves. As the member for Gorton referred to, that was something that probably hasn't had as much light shone on it over many, many years, but we've made sure that that legacy is being well remembered. It was a real testament to his forward thinking that, 10 years on, the vision that he offered for a cultural policy, Creative Australia, served as the foundation for the new cultural policy that we've released: Revive. In many ways he was the grandfather of that policy, never content for the arts to be left to the margins. In 2013, he said:

… governments have to invest in our culture and our creative industries. Why?—because culture defines us. We are home to the oldest living culture on earth, and we have been welcoming to the greatest diversity of cultures on earth. This is what has made us unique, and it is why we have to preserve it, nurture it, invest in it and build upon it.

Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It being 6.30 pm, the debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 192B. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting. The member for Macquarie will have leave to continue speaking when the debate is resumed on a future day.