Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) | Hansard source

I wish to join with the government and all of the parliament today in support of this condolence motion for the late honourable Simon Crean. In doing so, I recognise his legacy and contribution to public life in Australia.

Simon was a principled leader with a curious mind and a thirst for adventure, and we know, of course, that he had courage. We've heard that many times already today. He made a substantial contribution for over 50 years in public life, serving as leader of the ACTU, minister in four Labor governments and leader of the Labor Party. Perhaps just as important, he was a thoroughly decent and affable man with friends across the parliament and the Australian community. Simon had an empathy and humanity that was bigger than party politics. His commitment to the Labor Party was strong, but his believe in good politics was always at the centre of everything that he did.

I've known Simon since I was a kid. He was a dear friend of the family. I know when I first came to this place Simon always made an effort to check in and see how I was going, and that continued long after he had left and I was still here. I remember sharing Christmas at his family's home. I was deeply honoured and think back on it very fondly. When I was a kid he was a great union leader, and I just took it for granted. As I got older I realised the real contribution that people like Simon made and, of course, what his strong union with Bill Kelty meant to working people in this country. The reforms that they made and their contribution to the lives of Australian workers and to real changes to working conditions in this country have, I think, been unmet and unmatched by those who have come after.

Simon was a great union leader. My own dad was a member of the old storemen and packers union. On the news of Simon's passing, dad texted me and said, 'Simon Crean. A really top bloke and a humanitarian,' and I think that goes for a lot of workers who really valued and succeeded from the leadership of Simon in his union years. My dad's a harsh critic—he doesn't say those things about people very lightly—but he always had the utmost respect for Simon, and I think workers right across the country did as well.

I want to recognise Simon's contribution to a number of portfolios and passions that he and I both shared: his advocacy for the arts and for the Murray River and his principled opposition to the invasion of Iraq.

As the Minister for the Arts in the Gillard government, Simon launched national cultural policy Creative Australia, the successor to Keating's 1994 Creative Nation, delivering on one of the key ideas of the Rudd government's 2020 summit. Creative Australia presented a vision and strategy to place arts and culture at the centre of modern Australian life. Simon knew arts was for everyone, not just the elite few. It spoke, of course, this policy, to five overarching goals developed in close consultation with the artistic and the broader Australian community.

Simon ensured that goal 1 of the policy's five objectives was to recognise, respect and celebrate the centrality of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures to the uniqueness of Australian identity. That was important, as important then as it is now. Those goals established the framework that was central to the development of the current Australian government's cultural policy, Revive, and I look forward to seeing that implemented properly and funded with gusto. Simon was personally involved actively in the arts, serving as the Chair of the McLelland Gallery, and was an enthusiastic supporter of the Australian National Academy of Music. He always understood and championed the value of arts in Australian society and, as I said, for everyone, not just a few.

On the Murray River, obviously a topic that's very close to my heart, being a senator from South Australia, Simon was one of the first political leaders to push for a national plan on the Murray-Darling long before others had chimed in and before John Howard followed suit. As Labor leader, in his 2003 budget reply speech, he made national cooperation over the Murray-Darling instrumental to his response and to the policy. He chaired the regional affairs committee's first parliamentary inquiry into the Murray-Darling Basin. Ironic it is that now all these years later we are still facing these battles, but we are in a much better position now than we were back then because of his leadership and courage.

He emphasised the importance of people working together to strike the right balance and protect the river and the economy, knowing that there are no jobs on a dead river. He understood the environmental limits of extraction. He said, 'You can't keep taking water out of the system and think that the basin is going to be there in the long term.' He understood the basics of how our economy needs a healthy environment. When some reacted angrily to the river plan and burned hard copies in front of the media, Simon Crean acknowledged the frustration but urged people to work together. He said, 'Burning books has never solved a problem in the history of the world,' and he challenged people to work together for constructive solutions.

There's been much said already today and lots written about Simon's principled stand against the illegal invasion of Iraq. As one of the millions of Australians who marched against the war, when I was at university, I want to acknowledge his moral leadership in opposing this catastrophic war. His words at that time meant so much to those of us out there on the streets. As Kim Beazley said recently:

Had his call been heard, picked up in the US and the UK and by the Australian government, the Middle East would not be the mess that it is, and we probably would not have gone out in Afghanistan in the way in which we did.

Simon's leadership at the time was so profound and important. Simon Crean was right. The majority of Australians who opposed the war were right. John Howard, George Bush and Tony Blair were wrong. Crean's stance on the invasion of Iraq reflected that he was partly politicised of course, as we've heard today, from his opposition to the Vietnam War during his youth, and as his speechwriter and former colleague Dennis Glover wrote about Simon Crean recently:

… he was a student during the Vietnam War. In our meetings he mentioned repeatedly how he knew of young men, including some close friends, who had come back from that war physically and mentally damaged. Agreeing to send people to fight was something he would never, ever do lightly.

Simon Crean stood up to John Howard on Iraq, and, like the former Greens leader Bob Brown, he stood up to George Bush, although slightly differently. On 4 February 2003, just over a month before the invasion began, Simon Crean stood his ground in parliament and told John Howard:

Prime Minister, you argue that the United States alliance requires you to respond to all requests from the US. It does not. The very first article of the ANZUS treaty makes it clear that all alliance decisions must be in conformity with the United Nations.

Only two weeks earlier, Simon had joined the Prime Minister Mr Howard to farewell troops who had been deployed to the gulf. Simon said at the time to the troops:

The men and women of our fighting forces in a democracy are expected unquestioningly to accept the orders of the government of the day.

You don't have a choice and my argument is with the government, not with you.

This was Simon Crean, leading with courage, conviction and empathy. Our national debate and our politics would be richer today if there were more leaders with the moral conviction and courage that Simon Crean showed on Iraq.

Whether it was as a friend, as a unionist fighting for workers or as a minister advocating for the arts or the plight of our river or showing strong opposition against an illegal war, he stood with conviction. I want to recognise Simon Crean's life and legacy and express my sympathy to his family, his friends and his colleagues today. I know that he will be missed dearly, and I think, for all of us, taking a leaf out of his book—courage, conviction and standing still in the wind—is something we should all consider.