Family, Leadership, Party Reform, Unions and 2GB Blackout

Simon Crean - Leader of the Opposition

Radio Interview with Alan Jones

Transcript - Radio 2GB, Sydney - 23 April 2002

E & OE PROOF ONLY

JONES: The Opposition Leader Simon Crean has just lobbed in, negotiated the lifts and here he is, good morning.

CREAN: Hi Alan, how are you?

JONES: You're the landlord aren't you?

CREAN: Well, no, I used to be the landlord. (laughs) It's that broad umbrella of labour family that you always typecast us into.

JONES: (laughs) Just tell us about Simon Crean. I mean, when you got the leadership they said you were replacing the son of a former Whitlam Minister with the son of another. Your father was the Deputy Prime Minister.

CREAN: Yes, Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer.

JONES: Your mum and dad are still alive.

CREAN: Yes, both of them very well. I saw them on Sunday, both traveling very well.

JONES: And your brother is the Treasurer in the Tasmanian Government.

CREAN: That's correct.

JONES: You've had tragedy as well haven't you? I don't want to revisit that, but that was a terrible moment in the life of the whole family wasn't it, way back in 1995?

CREAN: 85.

JONES: 85.

CREAN: Yes, we lost Stephen, the older brother, in a skiing accident. So, yes, that affected us all. It's a long time ago but you still remember it Alan.

JONES: You do indeed. Just, people were saying when you were the leader, standing for this, there was an ABC candidate. Was that unfair, 'Anyone But Crean'? I see where Carole, your wife, said somewhere that she thinks you're likeable. Is that a problem after you've been Shadow Treasurer or Treasurer, you're not often dealing in good news and you build an image whereby people don't see you as you really are?

CREAN: Two points. The ABC faction, that's the 'Abbott Before Costello' faction, Alan. This is the Liberal Party leadership challenge.

JONES: Not 'Anyone But Crean'.

CREAN: The second part of the question, I mean I think it's not so much being Shadow Treasurer, or for that matter being Treasurer, I think that in my case it was because I was consistently perceived as playing the attacking role, very effectively in the Parliament. It was effective because it made the Government accountable and that was very important in terms of us positioning, but it does narrow people's perceptions of you and I think the important thing is that you've always got to broaden the appeal. I think, for me, the leadership give me the opportunity to broaden that and that's what I'm about at the moment.

JONES: The Adelaide Crows have forty thousand members. You're an AFL man?

CREAN: Yes.

JONES: The ALP would be struggling to have forty thousand members. How difficult is it to reinvigorate the Party given that you've lost three elections in a row? This is, where you are here today now, Sydney, is really the centre of any claim for power, fifty seats, you've only won twenty. You don't ever win more than a third of the seats in Queensland, so it's a massive rebuilding job isn't it?

CREAN: It's an important challenge to us both Sydney and Brisbane, Alan, and can I just come to that first point, we need to increase our membership. There's no question about that, that's why the Hawke-Wran Committee is looking at options by which we can make it easier to join. I think we make it too hard to join and we don't really say to people this is what membership entitles you to, a real say. So I've been signalling very strongly that we're going to crack down on the branch stackers, we're going to open the Party up. I hope as a consequence of that, we increase the membership base. But it's interesting you ask about Sydney because one of the first things I did when I took over the Leadership was to visit Western Sydney, I've been back a number of times since. I've urged my Shadow Ministry to get out there on a regular basis and indeed I'm taking the whole Shadow Cabinet there at the beginning of next month. We're meeting in Parramatta next month. We believe that there are issues impacting upon the, not just Western Sydney, but outer Central Sydney for that matter, issues that go to infrastructure, issues that go to impact and access to services. My belief is that we can offer better solutions to the delivery of those services by working in partnership with state government. Now fortunately we have the opportunity to do that in a constructive way with the Carr Government and that's part of the agenda that we'll be developing.

JONES: Just back to that business about branch stacking, do you think the perception of people entering the party, and it's not unique just to your party, but that it is such, the stacking is such that you're preventing good candidates from entering Parliament or dud MPs keep the numbers in their branches so that they can control the branches and keep being re-elected. They're difficulties that all political parties face, aren't they?

CREAN: Yes they are, and if you look at the reports coming out of Queensland on the weekend, it's David Jull's seat that's been stacked by the Liberal Party to secure preselection for whoever. So stacking isn't just confined to the Labor Party. The difference is I'm prepared to do something about it.

JONES: What can you do about it?

CREAN: Well what I've said, and I signalled this last week, is that we need a rule that underpins the integrity of people's membership within the Party. The basis for that rule should be your enrolment on the Australian Electoral Roll, that that determines residency for the purposes of voting. It also determines, fundamentally, your ability to participate. The basic principle being, you don't get the vote unless you're on the Electoral Roll. Now of course you've got to make exceptions to that for people under the age of eighteen, but that should be easy to craft a rule around, but fundamentally the rule should be, let's get integrity, let's base it on the Australian Electoral Roll. Will John Howard do it? You ask him next time you've got him on the program Alan, because I think this is something all political parties have to face up to quite frankly. If we're going to rebuild trust in ourselves, we've got to convince the public that we are genuine. The second thing that flows from that is that in the end the test of people's judgment of you is the quality of the candidates you put forward and so we shouldn't be having barriers in whatever form to us getting the best possible candidates putting themselves up for us.

JONES: What about your 60/40 rule, and you've had a lot to say about which determines the composition of ALP Conferences, where 60 % of conference representation must go to affiliated unions, 40 % from the general membership, yet the unions cover fewer than 15% of the workforce. It's out of kilter isn't it?

CREAN: Well I believe we need to change it and I've argued that and I'll continue to argue it. It's not going to be easy but I'm going to persist in my objective of changing that rule. But in the end, just changing the rule isn't necessarily going to guarantee you the quality of candidate's argument that I've talked about. I want us judged by the candidates we put forward and therefore I think there are other issues that, as well as that 60/40 rule that we've got to address, to ensure that we get the best quality candidates.

JONES: The left wing Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, called the ALP elitist, insular and out of touch. It said the factional system is being used, quote to promote mates, family, financial backers and loyal staffers into Parliamentary seats or positions of power and influence, but policy making has become the play thing of Parliamentary frontbenchers and their courtiers. How much validity is there in that criticism?

CREAN: Very little, if at all, Alan. Very strong rhetoric to justify a decision, a decision that they're entitled to make and they can make it. I think they're wrong and I will use the opportunities that I've got to prove that they are wrong.

JONES: But the Victorian Branch has pulled out yesterday from the ALP, hasn't it?

CREAN: Which is their right. But I'll tell you what won't change. We won't stop representing their members. The Labor Party will continue to represent their members and their families because we always have, whether they're affiliated to the Party or not.

JONES: Do you have a problem whereby the union doesn't really represent the broad brush of people whose support you need to win political power, but they do have the financial backing that you need to be able to sustain any push to expand and broaden the Party?

CREAN: Well they still represent an important base of people that we do represent.

JONES: That's a quarter of a million, the Victorian Branch, if they pull out.

(Loss of transmission)

JONES: Well we sure have Sydney talking but for all the wrong reasons and my apologies to all our listeners firstly and I'll apologise to Simon Crean our guest. What has happened here, there was just a power, but we haven't established why, built I think it was associated with the popularity of the Opposition Leader and there were cameras everywhere and one of them was plugged in apparently to the wrong plug hole, whatever, we'll have to work all those post mortems out later. So Simon Crean what I shall do is I'll end this here because we don't have the time and my apologies to you and next time your in town come back and we'll sort of start it all over again but we'll miss out the first part.

CREAN: All right.

JONES: The segment may have been shortened, but we sure weren't.

CREAN: We're a lethal combination. We should get together again. (Laughs).

JONES: We go back to Storemen and Packers all those years ago, they don't know that?

CREAN: Now we should relive those stories.

JONES: There's some history. You're the landlord here in a sense you see, this is the Labour Council Building that we're in, so we've got to make sure we improve things. But Simon my apologies about that and thank you for indulgence and we'll talk next time.

CREAN: Well I'd like to think I had power Alan, but not to restrict it to you.

JONES: Not enough this morning, it's twenty five to eight.

ENDS.