By Richard Willingham, The Age
LABOR party veteran Simon Crean has declared the past three years in the hung parliament the low point of his 23-year career.
Mr Crean on Monday morning announced he would not contest the federal election in his seat of Hotham.
”The low point has been the last three years,” Mr Crean said. ”It’s the fact we haven’t been able to crowd-out the white noise in the last three years that enables to better get the message out as to what we are doing to underpin and realise the potential. Because this country has a great future.”
During a press conference in Melbourne, Mr Crean also said it was critical that rank-and-file Labor members in Hotham were given a say in the preselection.
Geoff Lake, 33, has already emerged as a frontrunner for the Hotham, with several sources quick to nominate the Monash City councillor.Cr Lake, who is a member of the National Union of Workers, was elected to the council when he was just 20. In 2000, at 22, he became the state’s youngest mayor.
During his time on council he has been president of the Australian Local Government Association and the Municipal Association of Victoria. As part of his role as ALGA president, Cr Lake was a full member of the Council of Australian Governments.
Cr Lake confirmed he was interested in running.
”However, I am first going to speak to my family this evening [Monday] prior to making a decision about whether to put myself forward as a candidate,” Mr Lake said.
Mr Crean said the timing of his retirement announcement was to ensure there could be a rank-and-file preselection ballot.
”You can’t expect people to join a party if they don’t have rights, and one of the most important rights that they should have, is the ability to have a say in who represents them,” Mr Crean said.
There has been speculation that former prime minister Julia Gillard’s replacement in Lalor may be made by the national executive, not local members, because the election is only months away.
Mr Crean, who entered federal parliament in 1990 following a stint as Australian Council of Trade Union president, said he was not concerned that several other senior ministers were retiring, saying that Labor had a strong depth of talent.
”This wasn’t an easy decision, nor was it a hard one,” Mr Crean said.
Hotham becomes the sixth Labor-held Victorian seat to come up for preselection since the last election with Mr Crean joining Ms Gillard, former ministers Nicola Roxon and Martin Ferguson, former speaker Harry Jenkins and backbencher Steve Gibbons in not contesting this year’s poll.
The seat is a right-wing Labor Unity seat.
Several in the party have again raised the issue of female representation – Labor has a target that 40 per cent of candidates in winnable seats be women.
Recently Ms Roxon was replaced by a man and the Left had campaigned hard for Mary-Anne Thomas to get Batman.
Local voting for Batman closes on Monday ahead of a central party committee ballot on Tuesday evening.
