Simon Crean, beloved son of Labor who loved the glory of a sunrise - The Age

Simon Crean’s mother, Mary, was celebrating her 100th birthday when she gave a little speech that endured in the memory of Crean’s great friend, the compact giant of Australia’s labour movement, Bill Kelty.

Mary Crean said the Labor Party should always be caring, compassionate and courageous, and should always provide hope for those who needed it most.

Simon Crean did not live as long as his mother. But Kelty said he had devoted much of his working life to ensuring he, the labour movement and party he served lived up to those ideals.

Crean died in Berlin on June 25, aged 74, of what his brother David revealed to mourners on Thursday was a pulmonary embolism that struck without warning.

Kelty, aged 22, met Crean, 21, in 1970 when they worked in the Storemen and Packers’ Union.

They went on to run the ACTU together, Crean as president and Kelty as secretary, before Crean took to federal politics, eventually serving as a cabinet minister in the Hawke, Keating, Rudd and Gillard governments. He was leader of the federal parliamentary Labor Party from 2001 to 2003.

Simon Crean was farewelled at a state funeral in Melbourne.Credit: Eddie Jim

“I loved Simon,” Kelty said at the end of his long and emotional eulogy, and it was a sentiment repeated often during Crean’s state funeral in Melbourne on Thursday.

Hundreds of mourners came: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and several former premiers, dozens of other senior political figures from federal and state parliaments representing all sides of politics, senior bureaucrats, ambassadors, vice regal representatives and Crean’s family and friends.

They sat beneath the great vaulted ceiling of St Paul’s Cathedral to remember a man described as an adventurer, a lover of the arts and an inquirer who enjoyed travelling and revelled in the magnificence of sunrises and sunsets.

The fulcrum of Crean’s life, it was agreed, was his family.

His wife Carole spoke of meeting Crean at a tennis club when she was 15 and he 17. Within five years they were married, and, over 55 years, she never tired of his enthusiasm for exploring Australia and the world, of his curiosity about almost everything and their shared love of debate.

She spoke of her husband’s love of the outdoors and told of his insistence on travelling to remote Lake Tyrrell in north-western Victoria and trekking through the dark to witness the wonder of the night sky, the galaxies and shooting stars reflected in the lake.

She spoke, too, of her pride that Crean – who famously opposed the invasion of Iraq in 2003 – was prepared to jeopardise his political future for the greater good.

Crean’s daughter Sarah said her father made people everywhere feel special and heard, and he had granted her the gift of empathy.

Though he had gone too early, Sarah said he had already left something of himself in his baby grandson, her son Cosmo.

Crean’s other daughter, Emma, read a poem she wrote for her father: “A man with the strength to dream … Seeking truth helping all he can, through adventure, leadership and hard work, one soul, a soul we all knew.”

Crean’s brother David, a doctor and former Tasmanian state parliamentarian, recalled their childhood, with older brother Stephen, who perished at Thredbo in 1985, growing up around politics. Their father Frank was a long-time Labor MP who became treasurer in Gough Whitlam’s government.

“Our mother never wanted any of the boys to enter politics; she thought it was too brutal,” he said.

Crean, however, made it clear early he wanted to be involved in the Labor movement.

Shortly before Crean died, he and David travelled together to Ireland and Scotland, tracing their family history.

“Our love for each other and our special bond over 72 years together, with all our treasured memories, was there,” he said.

“We were on a tight budget, and like we’ve done many times before, we shared the twin room.

“I was lucky to do that trip, and I’ll cherish it forever.”

As federal arts minister, Simon Crean advocated for increased support to Indigenous art.Credit: Rodger Cummins

Albanese said Crean “often greeted the world with a crinkle-eyed geniality – an apt introduction to this man of decency, kindness and boundless generosity”.

“We are here to mourn a great Australian who served his country and his community with humility and compassion, with integrity and intellect,” Albanese said. “A beloved son of the Australian Labor Party whose personal qualities earned him a respect that knew no political boundaries.”

A transfixing moment came early in the funeral service.

The haunting voices of the late Aboriginal singer Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, accompanied by singer-songwriter Paul Kelly, filled the cathedral with an affecting version of Amazing Grace.

Crean, we might imagine, would have approved.

As arts minister, one of his last acts as a parliamentarian in 2013 was to launch Labor’s cultural policy, Creative Australia, which included ambitious upgrades to Indigenous art support.

“Simon always believed culture defines us,” Carole told mourners, adding that he always celebrated that Australia had the oldest continuous culture on Earth, as well as the most diverse.

“Carole,” said the prime minister, addressing Crean’s wife. “The glow of the great love between you will never fade from your heart. We wrap you and all your family in our thoughts today.”

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2023-07-20 07:35:09Z
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