Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) | Hansard source

I rise as Leader of the Nationals in the Senate to support the motion moved by Senator Wong and the comments made by both the government and the opposition on the passing of the honourable Simon Crean.

While many of the speeches are about his achievements in the union movement, his lifelong interest in the arts, his principled stand against participation in the Iraq war and his contributions to the Labor Party, I want to concentrate instead on his contribution to agriculture and regional Australia. He was dignified in a profession that is often brutal and cruel. When Simon Crean was promoted by Prime Minister Bob Hawke to be Minister for Primary Industries and Energy in 1991, he took to the job with great gusto and enthusiasm, donning his RM Williams boots and travelling extensively and relentlessly throughout regional Australia, meeting communities on the ground to hear firsthand from them. He was a staunch supporter of free trade and Landcare so communities in agriculture could actually reach their full potential. He knew that most people in the regions generally didn't vote for Labor and that as a prominent Labor person he would have to work doubly hard to gain their respect and trust, and he did. As a relatively new MP, he knew if he did well in agriculture and was respected by the sector that would stand him in good stead, and it did. The reason he was so different and so respected in the agriculture industry was that he did not readily become captive of noisy special interest groups, environmental groups or animal welfare activists. He took his high intellect and his commitment to evidence based policy development to the real world, and that was evidenced by how his pragmatic, solution-driven approach to policy development was supported by the regions and the agriculture industry more broadly.

I also want to say thank you to Simon, because when I became agriculture minister in 2019 he came to my office very early in the piece and was extremely generous in offering me his time and advice if and whenever I needed it. I appreciated his generosity and openness in this regard.

It is worth recording here that, post politics, Simon also became the chair of the Australian Livestock Exporters Council. I noted at his funeral at St Paul's Cathedral, which many in this chamber were at, there was significant representation from the agriculture industry. It was a testament to his ability to build bridges right throughout his life, no matter what job he was in, to have Baillieu, Brumby, Kennett and Bracks celebrating the life and achievements of a man like Simon Crean. I asked former Victorian Nationals leader and Deputy Premier of Victoria Peter Ryan for his thoughts, as they worked on regional development together as ministers at the federal and state levels. He said he was a man for all seasons who always had the greater good for our Australian communities in his compass.

Putting politics aside, I want to say in conclusion that Simon Crean was a politician who always tried to make a difference and who wanted to achieve a great outcome from whatever position he had throughout his public life. He was opposition leader and he aspired to become Prime Minister, but it was never destined to be. He was a man of deep faith, enthusiasm and drive and a great supporter of the North Melbourne Football Club, which I am very glad the Saints beat last weekend!

My thoughts and prayers go to Carole and his daughters, Sarah and Emma, his young grandsons and his close family and friends. Parliament needs more Simon Creans on both sides, in government and in opposition, for our nation to flourish, for the best of us to prevail, to be intelligent, not ideological, to have a work ethic that befits the people who sent us here, to have a curiosity for new ideas and to have a care after the human condition.