Simon Crean, Date of Birth, Place of Birth

    

Simon Crean

Australian politician

Date of Birth: 26-Feb-1949

Place of Birth: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Profession: lawyer, politician, trade unionist

Nationality: Australia

Zodiac Sign: Pisces


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About Simon Crean

  • Simon Findlay Crean (born 26 February 1949) is a former Australian politician and trade unionist.
  • He was a member of the House of Representatives from 1990 to 2013, representing the Labor Party, and served as a minister in the Hawke, Keating, Rudd and Gillard Governments.
  • He was the leader of the Labor Party from November 2001 to September 2004. Crean was born in Melbourne and attended Melbourne High School.
  • His father Frank Crean was also a Labor Party politician.
  • After studying law and economics at Monash University, Crean joined the labour movement, becoming general secretary of the Storemen and Packers' Union in 1979.
  • He became vice-president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions in 1981, and in 1985 was elected as the organisation's president, succeeding Cliff Dolan.
  • Crean was elected to parliament at the 1990 federal election, and almost immediately entered the ministry.
  • He was promoted to cabinet the following year, serving until the Labor government's defeat at the 1996 election. Following the 1998 election, Crean replaced Gareth Evans as deputy leader to Kim Beazley.
  • He was elected unopposed as Beazley's successor after the party's defeat at the 2001 election, thus becoming Leader of the Opposition.
  • Crean struggled in opinion polling, and in June 2003 Beazley challenged him for the leadership.
  • He won a comfortable victory, but speculation about his position continued and in November 2003 he announced his resignation.
  • He was replaced by Mark Latham.
  • Crean remained a senior figure in the Labor Party after losing the leadership, and returned to cabinet as Minister for Trade when the party won the 2007 election. Crean supported Julia Gillard's ascension to the prime ministership in 2010, and also voted for her at the 2012 leadership spill.
  • However, in March 2013 he announced that he was switching his support to Kevin Rudd, sparking another leadership spill.
  • Gillard removed him from cabinet in response.
  • Rudd eventually returned as prime minister in June 2013.
  • Crean was an unsuccessful candidate for the deputy leadership, and subsequently announced his intention to retire from politics at the 2013 election.

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