He immediately joined the Hawke ministry in the science and technology portfolio and remained on Labor's frontbench until its defeat in 1996 under Paul Keating. Five years later, he was elected unopposed as Labor leader after the resignation of then leader Kim Beazley. But in 2003, Mr Crean himself resigned after being consistently outpolled as preferred prime minister by John Howard - thus becoming the first Labor leader since Billy Hughes in 1916 to be denied an opportunity to lead his party at an election.

His attempts to reform Labor's internal structures and give the rank and file greater ownership of the party were also unsuccessful, in large part because of the stern resistance of the ALP's affiliated unions. In that, he was far from unique among Labor leaders.

Rather than quitting, however, Mr Crean continued to serve the Labor cause. He survived a concerted push within the Victorian branch of the Labor Party to deny him preselection at the 2007 election and went on to become trade minister in Kevin Rudd's first government and then minister for education, employment and workplace relations in Julia Gillard's cabinet.

With his departure, Labor has lost the last of its direct links to the Hawke/Keating governments, an era that increasingly assumes a halcyon glow in the memory of loyal ALP supporters. For Mr Crean, politics has always loomed large - his father, Labor warhorse Frank Crean, started his political career in the 1940s, served as an MP from 1951 to 1977 and was a minister and deputy prime minister in the Whitlam government.

For his part, Simon Crean has nominated helping to craft the wages and incomes accord as vice-president of the ACTU as the high point of his 40 years in the labour movement. Pointedly, he regards the past three years in government as the lowest point because of Labor's inability to talk about the opportunities its policies offered the country.

Despite the embarrassment of his call in March for a leadership spill ending with no challenge by Mr Rudd and his immediate sacking by Ms Gillard, Mr Crean, 64, can draw considerable satisfaction from his stalwart service to the labour movement and the Labor Party - and from having picked his own departure date. But his stalled career reminds us of just how capricious modern Australian politics - and modern ALP politics - has become.

It will be fascinating to see if controversy-prone Jorian Gardner gives Arts Minister Joy Burch any cause to regret her decision to hand him control of next year's Fringe Festival. The ACT government has committed $20,000 annually over four years to support the fringe event alongside the Multicultural Festival, as well as in-kind support for infrastructure and public liability insurance.

Ms Burch's decision to abandon the competitive elements of the selection process and appoint Mr Gardner - who founded the original festival in 2004 - has been questioned by organisers of the 2013 festival. In response, Ms Burch's spokesman said the festival director's job did not have to be open to all comers because funding had been switched from ArtsACT to a separate item in the ACT budget. Be that as it may, the money still comes out of the pockets of territory taxpayers. As such, Ms Burch has a duty to ensure that it is disbursed according to merit and in a transparent fashion.

However far Mr Gardner's qualities (and persistence) stood out, observing due process might have been a wiser option - especially given recent controversy over the tender process for another government-funded arts project, the Skywhale balloon.