The only Labor politician to serve as a minister in the Hawke, Keating, Rudd, and Gillard governments has died suddenly at 74yo while overseas. A true believer in the Labor cause, Simon Crean was born into it as the son of Frank Crean, a senior figure in Gough Whitlam’s government. A leading unionist before he entered parliament in 1990, Crean became opposition leader in late 2001 after Kim Beazley/Labor lost another election to John Howard’s Coalition. Crean lost that role to Mark Latham in 2003. And the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years were pretty turbulent for Crean too… In recent times, Crean served as a board member of the trucking company Linfox. Last night, Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said Crean was “never afraid of fighting for what was right – like when he bravely opposed Australia’s involvement in the Iraq War.” PM Anthony Albanese said he was a “great servant of the labour movement and a wonderful human being.”