Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's been a real privilege to hear the last two speakers talk about their very affectionate memories of Simon Crean. He certainly leaves a formidable legacy. I first encountered him as a young journalist here in Canberra, in the press gallery, when he was with the ACTU in the 1980s. We'd doorstop him on the way into meetings and we'd record the results on the way out, usually on the front steps of the old parliament. And these were the comings and goings of negotiating multiple rounds of the Prices and Incomes Accord with the then Hawke government, with Hawke and Paul Keating.

When I look back on these times, I didn't have the relationship that the member for Riverina had or the member for Gorton had, but I look back and think of what I was watching happening before me, and that was seeing Simon Crean and Storemen and Packers Union that he'd come from being pioneers in negotiating a superannuation system which really set the scene for what became a cornerstone of our superannuation system that we have today. The accord mark II, which I remember reporting on, really paved the way for that compulsory superannuation system. So I had the privilege of watching him change Australia.

I think much has been said about his principled decision to oppose the Howard government's decision to go to war in Iraq and how he articulated so clearly to the troops that his beef was not with them but was with the government. That has been much remarked on since his very sad passing. But I want to talk about his arts legacy that he leaves. As the member for Gorton referred to, that was something that probably hasn't had as much light shone on it over many, many years, but we've made sure that that legacy is being well remembered. It was a real testament to his forward thinking that, 10 years on, the vision that he offered for a cultural policy, Creative Australia, served as the foundation for the new cultural policy that we've released: Revive. In many ways he was the grandfather of that policy, never content for the arts to be left to the margins. In 2013, he said:

… governments have to invest in our culture and our creative industries. Why?—because culture defines us. We are home to the oldest living culture on earth, and we have been welcoming to the greatest diversity of cultures on earth. This is what has made us unique, and it is why we have to preserve it, nurture it, invest in it and build upon it.

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