As Sir Humphrey Appleby would say it was a 'courageous' speech …
We need more of Simon Crean’s honesty, courage and conviction. Simon Crean told the parliament in the presence of President Bush that the true measure of friendship was to tell a friend when they were wrong. And they were wrong on the Iraq war. He was right. Yet he became the only Labor leader never to contest an election.
Like Ted Mack and John Hatton, Simon Crean had the balls to tell the obvious truth, despite *massive* amounts of pressure from press , what everyone with a brain knew - that the Iraq invasion was stupid, illegal and just plain wrong … Where are these strong emotional human beings hiding these days?
Tributes flow after former Labor leader Simon Crean dies age 74
On reflection, Simon Crean was probably the first domino to fall in a certain madness that seized Labor during the Howard era and presaged a decade of turmoil that only settled down under Bill Shorten’s leadership (2013-19).
Crean, who died suddenly over the weekend while travelling in Europe, was known for his hard work, moral clarity and even temperament.
He had been one of very few people to go straight into the cabinet upon his election in 1990 and he was regarded as a skilled practitioner.
So withering were his critiques of the Coalition that he was sometimes described as a Labor “attack dog”, particularly once he was elected deputy Labor leader from 1998. In 2001, he was elected unopposed as Labor’s parliamentary leader.
Everyone has a story of Simon Crean, especially those who stayed for a drink with Johno Johnson back in 2024 …
Simon, like his father Frank were both men of courage and integrity. It was hard to believe that the ALP replaced Simon as Opposition Leader with Mark Latham. However, we know that ruthlessness tends to prevail in parliament as well as in offices we work in ..
If there was a shred of decency at News Corp or within the Coalition, any mention of Crean today would be accompanied by a grovelling apology.
The savaging of Crean in the name of an illegal war based on a lie shouldn’t be allowed to recede into political and media history. It’s a vivid demonstration of what can be done to someone who opposes an abhorrent strategy backed by the world’s most powerful media company and political parties using war and terrorism purely for political purposes. That Crean has passed too young while perpetrators continue to avoid accountability for Iraq adds an especially sad note to his death.
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