Simon Crean - Post Leadership Career

Post Leadership Career

After Crean's resignation, Beazley and the Labor Party's Treasury spokesperson, Mark Latham, announced that they would contest the Labor leadership. At the meeting of Labor MPs on 2 December, Latham defeated Beazley by 47 votes to 45.

Latham then appointed Crean as the Opposition's shadow Treasurer, which gave him a continued prominent role in Australian politics. However, in the aftermath of Labor's defeat in the 2004 election, Crean resigned from his Shadow Treasurer position. However, at Latham's insistence he was re-elected to the Opposition front bench as Shadow Minister for Trade.

Crean retained this position when Beazley returned to the leadership in January 2005. In the June 2005 reshuffle, however, Crean was demoted to Shadow Minister for Regional Development. He faced a preselection challenge for his seat from Martin Pakula, a member of his former union, a move which he blamed on Beazley, Hong Lim, and the Labor Right. Beazley refused to publicly support either candidate, but several front-benchers including Julia Gillard supported Crean. Crean recorded around 70% of the votes in the first stage of voting, which led to his opponent's withdrawal. Since his victory Crean has singled out Senator Stephen Conroy for his part in the preselection challenge, describing his front-bench colleague as "venal" and "one of the most disloyal people I've ever worked with in my life".

Following the defeat of Kim Beazley and election of Kevin Rudd as Federal Labor leader in December 2006, Crean was reappointed as Shadow Trade Minister and also retained responsibility for regional development. In 2007 after Labor's election victory, Crean was appointed Minister for Trade in Kevin Rudd's ministry.

Crean visited Singapore and Vietnam from 21–26 July 2009 to pursue Australia's trade and economic interests at a range of ministerial and other high level meetings. From 21–23 July, Crean attended the APEC Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Trade and the OECD Roundtable on Sustainable Development in Singapore. On 24 July, Minister Crean co-chaired the 8th Joint Trade and Economic Cooperation Committee with the Vietnamese Minister of Planning and Investment Vo Hong Phuc in Hanoi. The meeting aimed to discuss key sectors in the bilateral relationship including education and training, infrastructure and environmental management, financial services and agribusiness.

Following Julia Gillard's ascension as Prime Minister in June 2010, Crean was appointed Minister for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations and also Social Inclusion, with the Trade portfolio moving to Stephen Smith. He is the only person to have been a Cabinet minister under Hawke, Keating, Rudd and Gillard. In over two decades as an MP, Crean has not spent a single day on the backbench. After the 2010 federal election, Crean was made both Minister for the Arts and Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government.