Former Labor minister Simon Crean has announced he is quitting politics and will not contest the next election.
Crean said he had turned down an offer to serve in Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s new cabinet.
“I welcomed that, but I indicated to him I had come to the decision not to contest the next election and he should take that into account,” he told Fairfax Radio on Monday.
“I left him essentially the option to use the position to regenerate or if he needed me to plug a gap until the election I was happy to.”
Crean was regional affairs and arts minister under Julia Gillard, but stepped down in March after unsuccessfully calling on Rudd to challenge for the leadership.
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He served as opposition leader between 2001 and 2003.
Crean stood in last week’s ballot for the deputy leadership, but lost to Anthony Albanese.
Crean joins Greg Combet, Simon Conroy, Peter Garrett, Craig Emerson and Stephen Smith as senior Labor figures who have quit since Rudd won the leadership last week.
Crean, 64, said he had decided to leave because of his age and the sheer length of time he has spent in politics and the labour movement.
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“I’ve been in politics for 23 years and in public life for over 40 years,” he said.
“I came in at the ascendancy of Gough (Whitlam). It was time then and it’s time now.”
Crean, whose father Frank was treasurer in the Whitlam government, said he had mixed emotions about leaving.
“There’s been a Crean in public life or politics for nearly 70 years,” he said.
Crean said he felt vindicated by the result of the leadership ballot.
“I feel vindicated in the sense that it was important to make the call and to show the lead,” he said.
“What disappointed me at the time was that there was a failure of collective responsibility to insist on the ballot.”
Crean said he was heartened by Labor’s standing in recent polling, but said the party could only win the next election if it lifted its performance.
“I think that we’re in a better position, a stronger position because of Kevin’s popularity,” he said.
“We will only cement that position if we get better processes in cabinet.”
AAP
