Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

That the Senate records its sorrow at the death, on 25 June 2023, of the Honourable Simon Findlay Crean, former cabinet minister in the Hawke, Keating, Rudd and Gillard governments, former leader and deputy leader of the Australian Labor Party, and former member for Hotham, places on record its gratitude for his service to the Parliament and the nation and tenders its sympathy to his family in their bereavement.

Colleagues, I rise on behalf of a Labor government to express our condolences following the passing of a great servant of our nation, of its working people and of the Australian Labor Party: the Hon. Simon Crean—former union leader, minister, Labor leader and member of the House of Representatives—at the age of 74. I start by conveying our condolences to his family: to his wife, Carole; to his daughters, Sarah and Emma; and to his brother David, with whom he shared a special bond, as well as to his former colleagues here and to his many friends. I welcome Carole Crean and members of the Crean family to the gallery today along with friends, including from the European Australian Business Council.

Simon Crean was courageous, decent, kind and principled. These traits defined his character as he served our nation at the pinnacle of our trade union movement and in some of the most esteemed political offices of our democracy. Simon made an extraordinary contribution to our movement, to our party and to our nation: president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, cabinet minister to four Labor prime ministers and leader of the Australian Labor Party. In these positions, he worked alongside some of the most consequential figures in our country's history to build a better Australia.

Imbued with an outlook that was positive and optimistic, Simon Crean fundamentally believed in the role of Labor governments as agents of change, as agents of transformation at home and abroad. For him, it was never enough to simply administer the status quo. He saw that, with purpose and vision, government could effect real change for the benefit of working people everywhere and could create opportunity for all our people. This optimistic outlook also served him well when confronted by challenges along the way. He met them as they came, and occasionally sought them out—persevering, sometimes facing setbacks, but never trammelled by personal nastiness. At a time when we regrettably witness the practice of politics becoming increasingly personalised, we reflect fondly on this mark of his great character.

Simon Crean was widely respected. When the times called for them, he made hard decisions and he stuck with them. At his core, he loved people. I saw firsthand Simon's genuine interest in the lives of others and his remarkable ability to recall names, family histories, anecdotes and events, all of which brought others closer to him.

Born in February 1949 in Melbourne, politics was part of Simon Crean's life from the very beginning. He grew up in a political household. His father, Frank, was already a Labor parliamentarian, serving in the Victorian state parliament before becoming a member of the House of Representatives a few months after the second birthday of a young Simon—the middle of his three sons. He later became Treasurer in the Whitlam government. As a consequence, and along with his siblings, Stephen and David, frequent trips to Canberra were a feature of Simon Crean's childhood and adolescence. And whilst this background might seem to have preordained his own progression into politics, Simon Crean still forged his own path, studying economics and law at Monash University. It was his connection with the movement against the Vietnam War that spurred his own political activism. But before this, as a teenager, it was the tennis club that commanded Simon's attention, and it was at the tennis club where his life's match was fulfilled when he met Carol. Their loving union, so apparent to all who knew them, would endure until his passing, spanning more than 50 years.

Simon Crean began his career in the labour movement in the early seventies at the Federated Storemen and Packers Union, a forerunner of the NUW and what we now know today as the United Workers Union, alongside Bill Kelty. What a formidable partnership—first at the union, later at the ACTU, with Simon Crean as president and Bill Kelty as secretary.

His involvement in union leadership came at a pivotal time for our movement. As assistant and then general secretary of the union between 1976 and 1985, this included leading key disputes to advance industry superannuation and equal pay. You see, before there could be an accord between the unions and government, there had to be accord between the unions. An agreement was reached on the fundamental steps for advancement: improving year 12 completion, guaranteeing national superannuation and health care, instituting collective bargaining, setting institutional minimum wages, providing the greatest opportunity for advancement to those disadvantaged by sex or race, and building the union movement on its own terms.

Simon Crean was a key influencer in shaping the modern Australian economy of the 1980s and by the time he became president of the ACTU in 1985, having served as vice-president and then senior vice-president over the preceding four years concurrently with his union role, he had already done so much to help establish what would be a defining period in our country's history, a defining period in relations between unions, business and government. You see, the tripartite relationship fostered by the Hawke government in this period transformed our country, and Simon Crean was part of that—a transformational shift in industrial and in social policy.

Whilst his genuinely conciliatory and consensus driven style was effective, Simon Crean was fundamentally a successful union leader because he understood the struggles and the aspirations of working people. He could meet people from all walks of life and engage with them meaningfully and sincerely, and he, in turn, was held with such wide affection.

At the 1990 election Simon Crean took his passion for representing people from the shop floor to the floor of the House and he was elected the member for Hotham in Melbourne's eastern suburbs, a seat he would continue to hold until 2013, and immediately upon his entry into parliament he became a minister. He served alongside other Labor giants like John Button and Peter Cook, individuals who saw such great opportunity for Australia and worked earnestly to ensure that opportunity was realised and that it was shared. Simon Crean took the same approach.

Bob Hawke appointed Simon as Minister for Science and Technology, and a few months later he was appointed to cabinet for the first time as Minister for Primary Industries and Energy. He continued to serve in this portfolio when Paul Keating assumed the prime ministership and through the 1993 election for the remainder of that year. Much like his predecessor, the late John Kerin, he was highly respected and is still warmly regarded in the agricultural sector.

At the end of 1993, Simon Crean became Minister for Employment, Education and Training, a portfolio he would hold until the end of Labor's time in office in 1996. It was a highly consequential time to hold such a portfolio as our economy emerged from recession and the impact of technology necessitated structural change across the economy. And the centrepiece of this time, for both Simon Crean and the government, was Working Nation. Bill Kelty called this the most significant statement on employment since World War II, and during Simon Crean's time as minister Australia's unemployment rate experienced a steady decline from 10.6 per cent when he took office to 8.1 per cent two years later.

Following the defeat of the Keating government, Simon Crean became the senior figure in the Labor opposition, including deputy leader and shadow Treasurer under Kim Beasley between 1998 and 2001. And following Kim Beasley's second election defeat Simon was elected unopposed as federal Labor leader and leader of the opposition. In his two years as leader, national security and international relations dominated. With the aftermath of the September 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States and then the October 2002 Bali bombings, Australia faced an uncertain world.

The Bush administration in the US, supported by Australia led by John Howard, and the United Kingdom, led by Tony Blair, were preparing to invade Iraq based on flawed justification. It would have been easy, certainly much easier, to stand behind the ascendant Howard and provide bipartisan support for this action. Simon Crean and Labor did not, and history has demonstrated this principled and courageous judgement to be correct. Two decades have passed since that time, and, given the way this action unfolded, the lengthy duration of the conflict, the destabilisation in the Middle East, it's easy to forget what the political climate was like in the initial stages. Simon Crean was castigated in the parliament and in the press. But he maintained his stance, and as leader of the opposition he made several major speeches outlining Labor's position against the war.

At the HMAS Kanimbla farewell in 2003 he gave a short but consequential address, and he said this:

I don't want to mince my words, because I don't believe that you should be going. I don't think that there should be a deployment of troops to Iraq ahead of the United Nations determining it. But that's a political decision; that's an argument that the Prime Minister and I will have, no doubt, over the coming weeks and months.

But, having said that, I don't support the deployment of our troops in the circumstances. I do support our troops and I always will, and that distinction is fundamentally important.

an honest, courageous and decent statement reflective of the man. In February 2003 Simon Crean spoke in detail on Labor's position on Iraq to the parliament, and he again emphasised support for Australian troops along with the importance of non-proliferation, addressing border security issues in the Middle East and backing the authority of the UN and international law. But he also systematically dismantled John Howard's arguments for war, observing that the Australian people did not want peace at any cost, but neither did they want Howard's war at any price.

In case anyone thinks this stance was not without political consequence, we are reminded that, when Labor released its detailed policy statement on Iraq in 2000, the then foreign minister and then Treasurer said we were appeasers, and we were 'talking like Saddam Hussein' because we wanted the issue to go back to the UN Security Council. Yet again, it was Labor that addressed Australia's most significant international security issues with maturity, and it did so under the leadership of Simon Crean. At a National Press Club address the following month he spoke about the support he had received from the parents of troops who had been deployed. For him, the personal cost of war was never far from front of his mind. He also noted the courage of past Labor leaders John Curtin and Gough Whitlam who had stood up for Australia's interest in times of war. And Simon Crean was able to hold and articulate these positions because he deeply understood how fundamental they were to Labor's core.

In October 2003, several months after the conflict commenced, the President of the United States, George W Bush, addressed our parliament. In a speech of welcome Simon Crean addressed the president directly and made clear Labor did not agree with the war in Iraq. He spoke of the strength of our shared values, our interests and our principles, and he spoke of how the strength of our values, interests and principles did not prevent us from taking a different perspective and that did not diminish or weaken our partnership but enriched it and strengthened it. Simon Crean and Labor were proved right on Iraq—exercising cautious judgement and understanding that it was possible to be a constructive ally but not an unthinking one.

In this period, Simon Crean also demonstrated courage in the way he pursued reform within the Labor Party. Following a review conducted by Bob Hawke and Neville Wran, he implemented reforms that were wildly unpopular in some quarters. The effect was to reduce the influence of affiliated trade unions from 50 to 60 per cent in party forums and to increase the minimum target for the election of women to parliament.

When Mark Latham became Labor leader in December 2003, Simon Crean again became shadow Treasurer, before going onto serving the trade and regional development portfolios during Labor's final term in opposition before the defeat of the Howard government in November of 2007. When Kevin Rudd led Labor back to government, Simon Crean returned to the cabinet table, and I was honoured to be his cabinet colleague. Along with John Faulkner, he was one of only two ministers who had previously served at that level in a federal government. He retained the trade portfolio he had held in opposition, before becoming Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government and Minister for the Arts under Julia Gillard. His service in the trade portfolio has seen him credited with influencing so many of the foundations of Australia's approach to international trade.

Regional development and arts were portfolios that suited him but were also politically important for a government that relied upon the support of country independents in New South Wales for its survival. In Simon Crean, not only did they have a minister who spoke their language but they also had someone with a genuine appreciation for country music—I did not know this fact—as evidenced by regular attendance at the Tamworth Country Music Festival. You learn something. One of his last acts as arts minister was to launch Labor's national cultural policy, something which didn't get its opportunity to flourish with the government's demise in 2013 but the legacy of which is carried on by the Albanese government's Creative Australia policy.

Simon Crean left politics at the 2013 election. He continued to contribute to our nation through his post-political pursuits. Organisations spanning primary industries, regional Australia, education, trade and the arts all benefited from his wisdom and his guidance—as well as his local community. Amongst others, he chaired the Australia-Korea Business Council, was on the board of Linfox, served as deputy chancellor of Monash University and was an ambassador for the McKinnon Prize in Political Leadership. When he died suddenly last month, he was in Germany, participating in a trade delegation in his capacity as chair of the European Australian Business Council.

Simon Crean was a great Labor reformer, a man who came from Labor traditions and sought to shape our movement, our party and our nation for better. He grew up in and was surrounded by the Australian Labor Party and its significant figures and then forged his own path for himself to become one of the most significant figures in our party and our movement. Variously described as our most successful trade minister and our most influential art minister amongst many attributes, he was held in wide esteem. And I too held him so. Simon Crean was the first leader I served as a parliamentarian when I entered the Senate in July 2002, and his positive and optimistic outlook struck me along with the fundamentally decent way in which he practised politics and conducted himself personally. I went on to serve alongside him in the cabinets of Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, and we were fortunate to have the benefit of his wisdom and knowledge. Ideological he came squarely from the Hawke and Keating tradition, forging consensus, driving reform, taking an expansive view of our place in the world, and he reminded us to do the same. His passing reminds us again, as it is more important than ever.

As Carole spoke about in her heartfelt tribute, Simon was possessed of incredible self-belief and intellect. He trusted his judgement and was prepared to fight for what he believed in. His abundant passion was coupled with humility and a beautiful ability to forgive and let go.

He lived up to the ideals of his mother, Mary Crean, articulated as being that a Labor Party that should always be caring, compassionate and courageous and should always provide hope for those who need it most. And he understood that our job in Labor is not to do what is easy for ourselves. Our job is to do what is right and sometimes hard for Australia.

Simon Crean died in June 2023. There wasn't any warning. His state funeral, at St Paul's Cathedral in Melbourne the week before last, was attended by hundreds. It overflowed with gratitude for the life he had led, the contribution he had made and the love he had given. As his daughter Emma said through the tribute, 'Si: A Martlet of Love', which she wrote and delivered: 'A man with the strength to dream, redeeming his soul to fly at constant quest for knowledge, seeking truth, helping all he can, through adventure, leadership and hard work. One soul—a soul we all knew.'

This Labor government shares the gratitude of so many for the life of the Hon. Simon Findlay Crean. We express, again, our condolences and our sympathies to Carole, Sarah and Emma, Simon's wider family and all those here and beyond who knew him well.