Greg Combet (Charlton, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Procurement) Share this | Hansard source

I of course also wish to add my voice to the condolence motion in respect of the late Hon. Frank Crean. Frank was Deputy Prime Minister in 1975 and Minister for Trade in 1974 and 1975, and prior to that was Treasurer in the Whitlam government from 1972 to 1974. He was the member for Melbourne Ports—an electorate in which I lived for 14 years—for 26 years from 1951 to 1977. Further evidence of his commitment to public service can be found in the fact that he was a member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly from 1945 to 1947, whereupon he lost the election but returned to the Legislative Assembly and served again from 1949 to 1951, when he was elected as the federal member for Melbourne Ports.

Frank Crean was unquestionably one of the great Labor politicians of the 20th century. I believe Frank Crean was the embodiment of many Labor values, including the belief in fairness and justice in society, which runs through the great Labor tradition. Although I met Frank on a number of occasions only over the last 10 years, in the latter period of his life, I have known his son Simon since 1985 when I happened to be in attendance at the ACTU executive meeting, which was his first upon his election as President of the ACTU. The meeting was held in Newcastle, where I now reside.

All who know Frank’s family would concur with the fact that Frank and his wife, Mary, passed on to all their sons—Simon, David and Stephen—all the Labor values that are so important to our movement. In particular, they passed on a sense of personal decency and the importance of personal integrity and how one must conduct oneself. All of those values not only encompassed a general commitment to social justice but also accompanied a very practical understanding, embodied in Frank, of the nature of the Australian economy and of the importance of economic growth in the achievement of social justice. In his first speech to the House of Representatives on 26 June 1951, which I was perusing this morning, all of those Labor values and beliefs were firmly on display and placed on the record. In his first speech, Frank spoke extensively about economic issues and the importance of increasing productivity, for example, as a means to achieve social justice. He said:

… it is equally important, even should that productivity be increased, to consider how the total productivity is shared among the various sections of the community. That involves a matter of social justice, of quality as well as of quantity.

He went on to make observations about wages growth at the time, saying:

… sections of the community are receiving a greater proportionate share of national income at the expense of the majority of the people—

the wage earners. Frank, in his maiden speech, also articulated a very strong commitment to the machinery of the conciliation and arbitration system as a means of achieving a fairer distribution of income. Frank also understood and respected, as was observed in his conduct through his many years of service, the role of trade unions as part of the wider labour movement in pursuit of a fairer distribution of income and more just outcomes in society.

Frank also made a range of observations in his first speech that I think were pertinent about the taxation system and its distributive effect. Referring to the period immediately prior to the Second World War, he said:

… the Commonwealth relied principally upon indirect methods of taxation … for its revenues. Such moneys were collected from the people, not according to their capacity to their pay, but according to their consumption of particular articles. But the most socially desirable form of taxation, because it is the most socially equitable, is the progressive income tax, which is levied on individuals according to their capacity to pay. A Labour government was the first administration in Australia to recognize that there were certain desirable social principles to be followed in the levying of taxes. A Labour government was the first administration in this country to impose income tax; and … it is possible, by the use of that taxation instrument, to redistribute the national income, taking money from people according to their capacity to pay and redistributing it according to various categories of social need.

I have referred extensively to some of Frank Crean’s economic observations because his practical understanding of the economy, combined with his values and principles, is evidenced throughout his 26 years of public service as a parliamentarian in this place and in the representation of his constituents. He took that experience and belief into his time as Treasurer in the Whitlam government. That is particularly pertinent because lessons learnt from that period of time have informed Labor’s approach to economic management and the pursuit of its social justice goals since that time.

Within the Labor movement today, Frank Crean is rightly recognised—and most recently by the Prime Minister in his condolence motion to the House yesterday—as one of the finest ministers in the Whitlam government and as having brought a depth of economic knowledge to that role. The records of the time clearly demonstrate Frank’s concern about the economic conditions in the first couple of years of the Whitlam government: the pressure of rapidly expanding expenditure and the importance of tighter fiscal policy to help contain inflation.

The cabinet submissions sponsored by Frank Crean, which have become available under the 30-years rule, demonstrate that in 1973 expenditure was growing by around 15½ per cent and that there were significant wage pressures. It is easy to gain the impression, when perusing the reports and the records from that time, that Frank Crean was something of a lone voice. One can only imagine the pressures that he must have felt. That is consistent with the theme that I was articulating a moment ago—that is, his belief that, to achieve social equity and social justice, there needed to be sound economic management and that a strong economy can lead to a fair society.

In the Labor movement I think it is fair to say that, following the Whitlam government period, the lessons and the thinking of Frank Crean as Treasurer at the time, and his thoughts in relation to that period, were subsequently enormously influential in shaping the economic approach of the Hawke and Keating governments. History demonstrates that Labor became great economic reformers in the 1980s and the 1990s and far more disciplined in economic management, cognisant of the need for market liberalisation and a more efficient allocation of resources yet retaining commitment to fair and equitable outcomes.

I think that the son of Frank and Mary, Simon, embodies this approach very strongly in today’s parliament as the member for Hotham, as the Minister for Trade, as a former parliamentary leader of the Labor Party and as in fact a member of the Labor executive since 1990. I have tremendously high regard for Simon. I particularly enjoyed the time during which we worked together in leadership roles in the labour movement, he after 2001 as parliamentary leader and me as ACTU secretary. David Crean was equally influenced by the family environment and their values and the economic discourse that must have occurred around the family. He served as a parliamentarian in the Tasmanian parliament and also as Treasurer of the state.

I have a great degree of admiration for Frank Crean’s contribution to the Labor movement and I am firm in the belief, as I indicated at the outset, that he was one of the titans of the Labor movement in the 20th century. He and Mary had a partnership that extended well beyond 60 years. They experienced terrible tragedy, too, with the loss of their son Stephen in 1985. As anyone who witnesses parents who lose a child knows, it was a dreadful experience, particularly given the circumstances of that loss. I extend my condolences to Mary Crean, to Simon and David and to all of the members of the extended Crean family.

See this speech in context