A Labor party stalwart and one of Federal Parliament's longest serving members has announced his retirement.

Long-standing Labor member Simon Crean will quit politics at the next election, reports say. The one-time ALP leader said after 40 years in public life and 23 years in Parliament, it was time for him to bow out.

Mr Crean was president of the ACTU from 1985 to 1990 when he was elected to the Victorian seat of Hotham, he was head of the Labor party for two years beginning in 2001.

Crean reportedly began to plan his retirement after he failed to initiate a leadership ballot in March. The man who tried to oust the PM claims “loyalty” is his prime attribute;

"You've got to give it to get it. I've given it - haven't always got it," he said, "I didn't come into politics for personal advancement, I came in to change things, to make a difference, and to use the strength of the party structure, the collective if you like, to make those changes."

Though he says he may not get a chance to patch up his relationship with Julia Gillard, his efforts to remove here were not personal; "I think she is a wonderful person. I've known her over a number of years. I've mentored her," he said.

Mr Crean spoke of “regeneration and renewal” as the way ahead for his party now that Julia Gillard has been removed from her position. Crean believes now with Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister his own time is up, saying “I feel vindicated in the sense that it was important to make the call and to show the lead,"