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Nora Tong

Opposition Labor Party leader Simon Crean will be refocusing attention on the party's policies after comfortably winning a leadership ballot yesterday.

After a bitter 10-day battle with his predecessor, Kim Beazley, federal Labor MPs and senators voted 58 to 34 votes to stick with Mr Crean.

Accepting defeat, Mr Beazley ruled out a further leadership challenge.

'My challenge to Simon has come and it has gone,' he said. He refused to say whether he would be prepared to serve on the front bench under Mr Crean, a former trade union leader.

The struggle for the top job was marked by personal insults, factional fighting and public disinterest, much to the delight of the government of Prime Minister John Howard, whose political position looks stronger than ever.

Mr Beazley had been persuaded to mount the challenge because of fears among many Labor MPs that Mr Crean's unpopularity with voters made him unelectable. Mr Crean is perceived by many Australians as cold, uninspired and lacking focus.

On Sunday, a newspaper poll showed Mr Beazley was preferred as leader by 52 per cent of voters compared to 25 per cent for Mr Crean, despite the fact that Mr Beazley steered Labor to two general election defeats, in 1998 and 2001.

During the past 10 days Labor tore itself apart under intense media scrutiny, with one Beazley supporter warning that the party was heading towards 'a train wreck' and 'an election wipe-out' if it failed to dump Mr Crean.

Reacting to his win, Mr Crean said he was 'honoured' to be re-elected and called for the party to unite behind him.

He said Labor should look ahead and 'get on with the task of beating John Howard' at the next federal election, due to be held late next year.

'I can lead this party to victory,' he said. 'I know that I can do it. I won't be losing the next election.

'I demand nothing more than 100 per cent commitment from all of my colleagues and those prepared to give that 100 per cent commitment deserve a place in my team.'

But the vote claimed two early casualties among those MPs who had publicly declared their support for Mr Beazley.

The opposition health spokesman, Stephen Smith, tendered his resignation from the front bench, while Wayne Swan, another trenchant critic of Mr Crean, announced he would no longer serve as the party's chief strategist in parliament.

Further heads may roll, with Mr Crean expected to announce a reshuffle in the next few days.

Mr Crean faces a formidable challenge in healing his party's wounds, resisting calls for retribution against disloyal MPs and preparing Labor for the next election.

He hopes to lift Labor's dismal poll performance with the launch of new policies on health and higher education.

Despite the damaging leadership brawl, senior Labor figures insisted the party could beat Mr Howard's Liberal-National coalition next year. Peter Beattie, the premier of Queensland, said: 'I know one thing about the Labor Party. When it's divided, it's unelectable. When it's united, it's unbeatable.'

The party's national president, Greg Sword, said the contest had highlighted Mr Crean's strengths.

'He's performed very strongly and it's probably given him the opportunity to show the talent that he's got.'

But political analyst Glenn Milne, writing in The Australian newspaper, predicted that the fight was far from over. He said the Beazley camp would bide its time, waiting for Mr Crean's 'temporary' ascendancy to collapse.



Labor's Crean sees off Beazley challenge