Former Labor leader Simon Crean quits politics

UPDATE: FORMER Labor leader Simon Crean gets emotional as he  discusses his move to retire from politics.

AN EMOTIONAL Simon Crean has spoken of his decision to retire from politics after 23 years.

"This brings to an end a commitment I've had to the Labor movement for 40 years," Mr Crean said.

"There's been a Crean involved in public life since mid-40s," he said with a voice full of emotion, referring to his father and brother's involvement in politics.

Mr Crean said he would have liked to announce his retirement to the parliament.

"Who knows parliament may come back and I may get that opportunity to make a valedictory," he said.

Mr Crean began crying towards the end of his press conference.

"These are hard days," he said.

He said the change of leadership "wasn't personal".

"If it was I would have stayed with Julia," Mr Crean said.

Mr Crean, who made a bid to be Kevin Rudd's deputy but was defeated in a ballot by Anthony Albanese, announced the end of his 23-year political career this morning, saying that he started "thinking seriously" about retiring after the events of March 21.

Mr Crean tried spectacularly to bring down Julia Gillard's leadership on March 21 by calling for a spill that Kevin Rudd did not contest.

Mr Crean has long denied that he will retire at this election, but there was strong speculation in Labor ranks that he has decided to go.

Mr Crean told Mr Rudd he was not going to contest the election when the Prime Minister offered him a position in Cabinet after last week's ballot.

"I left him essentially the option to use the position to regenerate or if he needed me to plug a gap up until the election, I was more than happy to serve in that regard," Mr Crean told Neil Mitchell on 3AW radio.

"It was only last night that he came back to me and said he wanted to exercise the former of those two points.

"And today of course with the announcement of the Cabinet, I thought it was important to put on the record my position publicly, rather than have it put on there for me."

Mr Crean, 64, said he had decided to leave because of his age and the sheer length of time he has spent in politics.

"I've been in politics for 23 years and in public life for over 40 years," he said.

"I came in at the ascendancy of Gough (Whitlam). It was time then and it's time now.

"For me, if I stood again I would be 67 by the time the next election came around. I wouldn’t see myself resigning mid-term, I don’t think you should do that to an electorate ... unless of course there are ill health reasons.

"So I mean I started thinking seriously about this after the events of the 21st of March."

Mr Crean said he felt vindicated by the result of the leadership ballot.

"I feel vindicated in the sense that it was important to make the call and to show the lead," he told 3AW radio.

"What disappointed me at the time was that there was a failure of collective responsibility to insist on the ballot."

Mr Crean said he was heartened by Labor's standing in recent polling, but said the party could only win the next election if it lifted its performance.

"I think that we're in a better position, a stronger position because of Kevin's popularity," he said.

"We will only cement that position if we get better processes in Cabinet."

Mr Crean, whose father Frank was treasurer in the Whitlam government, said he had mixed emotions about leaving.

"There's been a Crean in public life or politics for nearly 70 years," he said.

Mr Crean will follow Julia Gillard, Greg Combet and Peter Garrett to leave office in the wake of Mr Rudd's return to the leadership.

Mr Crean has been a minister in the Hawke, Keating, Rudd and Gillard governments and held portfolios including Education, Trade, Primary Industry, Regions and Arts.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott extended his best wishes "and my assurances of respect for the work Simon Crean has done over the years".

"It is sad for the country that Simon Crean is leaving politics," Mr Abbott said.

"Like Martin Ferguson he was a representative of the best of the Labor tradition. The parliament, the party and the country will be poorer for his absence."

With Lanai Scarr and AAP