Among observers of the national political scene in Canberra, Simon Crean is listed as a future prime minister, remarkable progress for somone who entered parliament in 1990.

Former prime minister Bob Hawke, a predecessor of Mr Crean as president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, immediately made him a minister and he is now one of the most influential members of cabinet.

Mr Crean dismisses suggestions that he has an eye on the premiership. "I wanted to be in a government that was involved in major reform - a reform in the Labor style: commitment to equity and a capacity to grow an economy by building on its strengths, giving everyone the chance to contribute their talents."

Mr Crean took over the big portfolio of employment, education and training more than a year ago and he has had the opportunity to apply those principles in areas vital to the Australian economy. He has also earned the respect of the various higher education constituencies while creating a reputation in government.

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Yet he did not set out to be a politician - despite the fact that his father, Frank Crean, was a highly regarded treasurer in the Whitlam Labor government in the 1970s and the young Crean and his brothers grew up in a household immersed in Labor politics.

"I was very aware of my father being in politics and eschewed all that but the turning point for me was going to Monash University in the late 1960s and getting caught up in the Vietnam War protests. That was when I became involved in politics and with Labor through the local branch."

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Mr Crean graduated in economics and law from Monash but never took his articles. While finishing his law degree, he began working as a research officer with one of the unions and during the early 1980s also held senior positions in the ACTU. He quickly climbed the hierarchy to become president in 1985, a post he held until he was elected to parliament.

Described by union officials as a consumate pragmatist who tries to get warring parties around the table, Mr Crean has found higher education more challenging than some of his other portfolios. That is partly because universities have considerable autonomy and because there already exists a range of advisory bodies that the minister cannot easily influence.

For example, the Australian Vice Chancellors' Committee with its diverse membership has difficulty presenting a unified front on higher education's many troubling issues. In an address to the AVCC last September, he made a point of calling on the committee to provide more leadership, asking members to co-operate with him in tackling such matters as funding. "Reform is now a matter for the institutions themselves," he says. "They wanted autonomy and I think they have to discharge that autonomy."

Mr Crean claims a number of victories, such as the development of a nationwide credit-transfer policy and getting the support of the states in the creation of a national student admissions centre. He claims the government's assurance that there will be no upfront fees for undergraduates as a major achievement, like the formation of Australia's International Education Foundation which was set up to promote the marketing of Australian education courses overseas.

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"Getting the AIEF up and running in a way that broadens the export potential beyond higher education to the other streams was terribly important - and it wasn't easy getting that past certain vice chancellors," he says.

The Open Learning project, modelled on Britain's Open University, is another achievement. The government is now committed to its expansion through a new electronic network.

Although the temptation must have been strong to accept the government's line that cuts must be made in all departments, Mr Crean is pushing for extra spending on higher education in the May budget, especially on research infrastructure. He says he does not accept that higher education has reached its optimum level and despite needing to develop vocational education, "it should not be at the expense of spending on universities".

Among the challenges confronting him are a reallocation of federally-funded student places among the states and student mobility. The government had made a "down payment" on the issue of places in the current triennium by creating an additional 500 places in Queensland and reallocating 200 in New South Wales. It will now be necessary to "address that dimension for 1996 as well".

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Of a controversial proposal to transfer places from the south-eastern states to those whose populations are rapidly expanding in the north and west, Mr Crean says existing places will be funded.

But there will have to be some reorganisation and resource reallocations. This will form part of a "cocktail" of measures he will announce when the budget is brought down.

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