The news of the passing of Simon Crean on the weekend has been met with sadness across the political spectrum and the music and arts community.

Simon Crean was a giant in good policy making and better regulation. His national cultural policy Creative Australia made the first links between the importance of regulatory reform and the sustainability of live music.

Creative Australia included a significant investment in and put in place a National Live Music Coordinator which led the formation of the Live Music Office, a partnership between the Australian Government and Arts Minister Tony Burke MP and APRA AMCOS in 2013.  Simon Crean led the way for contemporary music creating broad consensus through collaborative policy making that was effective and continues to demonstrate long term out comes broadly across our sector and the country.

As well as this, Mr Crean’s work in regional development had a direct impact on the liveability and cultural value of regions. He understood cities, he understood regions and he understood the role of culture and the live sector in supporting this.

Lars Brandle from The Music Network has published the following obituary

Simon Crean Dies: Australia’s Music Industry Remembers ‘One of Our Great Political Champions’

Simon Crean, the former federal minister of the arts, is being remembered as one of the creative industry’s great political allies, and the architect of a modern national cultural policy.

He will be greatly missed.