Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the House record its deep regret at the death on 2 December 2008 of the Hon. Frank Crean, former federal Treasurer and Deputy Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia, and place on record its appreciation for his long public service and tender its profound sympathy to his family in their bereavement.

It is with sadness today that we note the passing of Mr Frank Crean, former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, who until his death held the distinction of being the oldest former member of the House of Representatives.

Frank Crean’s story was, in many ways, the story of Australia itself in the 20th century. His life spanned the great and the good as well as the dark and grim days of what was an incredible century for our country. He was born in February 1916, a time when Anzacs were just being evacuated from Gallipoli and being sent to the killing fields of France. He was one of those tough Australians who lived through two world wars and a great depression. These great cataclysms could have torn the heart out of anybody else, but instead in the case of Frank Crean they only seemed to inspire him to work towards redressing the great social injustices and inequalities of those times. Like his hero Ben Chifley he never stopped pushing forward to reach that light on the hill which symbolises the fundamental Labor values for which he stood throughout his life.

Frank Crean was a genuine Labor legend and a man deeply committed to public service. He spent more than a quarter of a century in our federal parliament, from 1951 to 1977, and played a central role in Labor politics throughout this period. He helped build and rebuild the party in some of its darkest days. He brought a real depth of economic and financial knowledge to the successive roles that he performed in the parliament. He was one of the finest ministers of the Whitlam government.

Frank Crean was born, as I said before, on 28 February 1916 in Hamilton, Victoria, the son of a bicycle maker. He completed his leaving honours at Melbourne Boys High School in 1933, won a place at the University of Melbourne and earned degrees in arts and commerce, as well as a diploma in public administration, studying part-time while he worked at the tax department. He ran successfully for Albert Park in the Victorian Legislative Assembly in 1945 and later for Prahran.

I am told that his preselection at Albert Park was an interesting affair. When he went for preselection at Albert Park he was confronted by the local Labor luminaries with some doubts about how a man such as Frank Crean with a decidedly Catholic-sounding name, Francis Daniel Crean, could possibly run for what was seen to be a Protestant enclave of Albert Park. Frank, of course, was a Presbyterian. It is one of the great ironies of Australian life that we all end up with funny names. I say that as a Kevin, anyway. But the Labor historians tell us that the local party strongman, Pat Kennelly, was dispatched with the mission of rebaptising the prospective Labor candidate for Albert Park. Ross McMullen, our historian, records Kennelly saying: ‘From now on you’re Frank Crean. You’ve got to cut out this Francis bloody Daniel business if you’re going to get yourself elected.’ And he did. From then on he was known as Frank Crean. It is a little insight into the sectarianism of an earlier age, and I think we in this parliament are all pleased that that sectarianism is no longer part of Australian national political life.

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