Kim Beazley

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Kim Beazley
Leader of the Opposition
In office 1996 - 2001 2005 – 2006
Preceded by	Paul Keating Mark Latham
Succeeded by	Simon Crean Kevin Rudd
Deputy Prime Minister of Australia
In office 1995 – 1996
Prime Minister	Paul Keating
Preceded by	Brian Howe
Succeeded by	Tim Fischer
Born	December 14, 1948 Perth, Western Australia
Constituency	Swan (until 1996), Brand (until present)
Political party	Australian Labor Party
Religion	Anglican (Christianity)

For Kim Beazley's father, Kim Beazley senior, see Kim Edward Beazley.

Kim Christian Beazley (born December 14, 1948), son of Kim Edward Beazley, is an Australian politician, who was Leader of the Australian Labor Party and Leader of the Opposition from 1996 to 2001 and from 2005 to 2006.

Beazley was a minister under Bob Hawke from 1983 to 1991 and under Paul Keating from 1991 to 1996. He was Deputy Prime Minister in 1995-1996. Elected Labor Leader in March 1996, he resigned in November 2001 after losing two federal elections. He was returned unopposed to the Labor Party leadership in January 2005 following the resignation of Mark Latham, he was defeated in a party room vote by Kevin Rudd in December 2006 before facing another election.

[edit] Early life

Beazley was born in Perth, Western Australia. His father, also called Kim Beazley and now generally known as Kim Beazley senior, was Labor MP for Fremantle from 1945 to 1977.

The younger Kim was educated at Hollywood High School in Perth, at the University of Western Australia, where he gained an MA, and at Balliol College, Oxford (Rhodes Scholar 1973), where he gained a Master of Philosophy degree. While at Oxford, he became close friends with Tony Blair and Geoff Gallop (now the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and former Premier of Western Australia respectively). After returning to Australia, he tutored and lectured in politics at Perth's Murdoch University before being elected MP for the seat of Swan at the 1980 election.

[edit] Career in government

Kim Beazley as Defence Minister in the Hawke government

Beazley became a protege of Bob Hawke, Labor leader from 1983, and in that year he was appointed Minister for Aviation in Hawke's first ministry. He was Minister for Defence, with a seat in Cabinet, 1984-90. In this role he was responsible for establishing the Australian Navy's submarine program which was beset with some technical problems and cost over-runs (see Collins class submarine). Beazley's lifelong interest in military matters is well known (and continues to this day); his consequent enthusiasm for this portfolio, and particularly for military hardware, earned him the nickname "Bomber Beazley".

Beazley was then Minister for Transport and Communications (1990-91), for Finance (1991), for Employment, Education and Training (1991-93) and Finance again (1993-96). He supported Hawke in his leadership battles with Paul Keating in 1991, but retained his position when Keating deposed Hawke and became Prime Minister in December 1991. Beazley was Deputy Prime Minister 1995-96. At the 1996 elections Beazley shifted to the safer seat of Brand, south of Perth.

[edit] First term as ALP leader

In 1996, on the defeat of the Keating government by John Howard, Beazley was elected unopposed as Labor leader and became Opposition Leader. He campaigned against Howard's Goods and Services Tax (GST) but lost the October 1998 federal election by a narrow margin: Labor polled a majority of the two-party vote but failed to win enough seats. Beazley in fact received the largest swing to a first-term opposition since 1934.

In mid 2001 Labor was well ahead in the opinion polls and seemed set to win the elections due at the end of the year, but in August a political crisis erupted when the Howard government refused to allow the MV Tampa, a Norwegian freighter, to set down on Australian soil at Christmas Island several hundred asylum seekers whom the crew had rescued from an unseaworthy boat in international waters. When the November 2001 election was announced, Howard had taken a commanding lead in the polls and seemed set for a huge victory. But Beazley's dogged campaigning regained some of this ground and Labor suffered a net loss of only four seats.

[edit] Opposition backbencher

Beazley resigned the Labor leadership after the elections and was succeeded by Simon Crean. But by 2003 Crean had failed to make any headway against Howard and Labor MPs began to fear that Howard would easily win the elections due in 2004. Crean's opponents persuaded Beazley to attempt a return to the leadership by challenging Crean. The Labor Caucus (parliamentary Labor Party) re-elected Crean in June 2003, not convinced that Beazley offered a better alternative. Some Beazley supporters, most notably Steven Conroy, continued to plot against Crean and Beazley refused to rule out a further challenge.

On 27 November Crean's closest supporters told him that he had lost their confidence, and the next day he announced his resignation. Beazley immediately announced that he would be contesting the leadership when the Labor Caucus met on 2 December. His only opponent was the party's economic spokesperson, Mark Latham. Latham defeated Beazley by 47 votes to 45. After the ballot Beazley announced that he would remain in politics as a backbench member and would recontest his seat at the 2004 elections.

In July 2004, however, Latham arranged for Beazley to return to the Labor front bench as Shadow Defence Minister. This followed controversy over Latham's policy of withdrawing Australian troops from Iraq by the end of 2004. Beazley's return to the front bench was generally seen as a move by Latham to reassure Australian public opinion that a Labor government would not put the U.S.-Australian alliance at risk.

[edit] Second term as ALP leader

Opposition Leader Kim Beazley says that Labor will oppose the Howard Government's industrial relations legislation "in every respect, at every stage" until the next election, Parliament House Canberra, 2 November 2005

After Labor's defeat in the October 2004 federal election, at which he became the longest-serving Labor member of the Parliament, Beazley again returned to the backbench, saying "my time as leader of the Labor Party has come and gone, it's over for me as far as leadership is concerned". But after Latham resigned as leader on January 18 2005, Beazley announced his intention to contest the leadership, saying that he was "absolutely fired with ambition."

Referring to widespread doubt that Labor could win the 2007 election under a leader who had already lost two elections, Beazley said: "There's no doubt in my mind that I can lead a winning team in the next election. The road to the prime ministership of this nation is a long and hard road. It's not an easy one. And there are many twists and turns on that road. I'm in my 25th year as a member of the Federal Parliament and I know this: public opinion is volatile and it can change."

Beazley was re-elected as federal Labor Leader when the Labor Caucus met on 28 January, following the withdrawal of the other potential candidates, Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard.^[1] Labor hoped that Beazley could follow a similar course to John Howard, who failed in his first term as Opposition Leader but returned in 1995 for a second term and then won the 1996 election. An election is not due in Australia until late 2007.

In September 2005, the publication of Mark Latham's The Latham Diaries contained comments by Latham to the effect that Beazley was a "dirty dog" and was not fit to "clean toilets in Parliament". Latham's abuse resulted mainly from two allegations: firstly that Beazley had engaged in a prolonged campaign to undermine Latham in his positions as a frontbencher and as opposition leader and; secondly that Beazley (as leader) had failed to provide support to Labor MP Greg Wilton, who later committed suicide. All of these allegations were vehemently denied by Beazley, his supporters and others.

In the first half of 2006, Beazley focussed much of the Labor Party's parliamentary inquiry into the Australian Government's notorious Australian Wheat Board (AWB) scandal, which allegedly involved bribes and kickbacks with the deceased former Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein that universally breached UN Sanctions, to which Australia was a signatory. The situation reached climax in the aftermath of treasurer Peter Costello's Budget for 2006, whereby for the first time in recent Australian political history, the opposition leader and his colleagues ceased inquiry on the budget papers after just six questions, before resuming further questioning on the AWB scandal. The media criticised the ALP,^[2] although many party ministers acknowledged the need for the Government to be held accountable for the AWB scandal.

These tactical deficiencies plagued Beazley's return to the leadership and were amplified by factional infighting in the broader Labor Party, raising many questions concerning both his ability to lead and the stability of the party. At the time, opinion polls by ACNielsen and Newspoll on preferred leader had him at record lows. This was confirmed in a forum on the SBS Insight television program on 2 May 2006,^[3] which specifically dealt with the Labor Party's political struggles, where some community members voiced their concerns about being disillusioned with Kim Beazley, and a lack of understanding for the values and polices for which he and the party stood. While Beazley admitted that winning an election is difficult, he was adamant that the 2007 election would be a "referendum on the Howard Government's unfair industrial relations laws."

After the mid-term parliamentary break, Beazley's fortunes slightly improved, with voter concern over interest rate rises, petrol prices and industrial relations giving Labor some electoral comfort. This was later evident in polls which suggested the ALP's primary vote to be at around 40 percent - the minimum considered necessary to gain government. However, polls concerning preferred leader still positioned Kim Beazley well below John Howard. Conservative political commentator, Piers Akerman, suggested in the Sunday Telegraph on October 1 2006, that his poor performance in leadership polls was to do with alleged inconsistencies in policy and judgement, particularly with regard to the Iraq war.

[edit] 2006 leadership challenge

With continued weak performances in preferred Prime Minister opinion polls, Beazley's leadership of the Labor Party came under increasing pressure. Opposition to Beazley again centred around foreign affairs spokesperson Kevin Rudd and health spokesperson Julia Gillard. According to media reports, the New South Wales Right faction promised its support to Rudd for leadership so long as he challenged Beazley before Christmas.^[4][5] On 30 November, Rudd met with Beazley and announced his intention to challenge for the leadership. On 1 December, Beazley announced not only a leadership election but also that all frontbench positions within the Parliamentary Labor Party would also be made vacant.^[6][7] Both sides claimed that they were in a winning position.

A ballot was held on Monday 4 December, and Kevin Rudd was declared the winner and leader of the ALP, by a margin of 49 votes to 39.^[8] Gillard was also elected unopposed to the position of deputy leader.

Following the ballot, Beazley said of his political future, "For me to do anything further in the Australian Labor Party I would say is Lazarus with a quadruple bypass. So the time has come for me to move on but when that gets properly formalised I will let you know."^[9] It was also revealed that his brother David had died at age 53 shortly before the vote took place due to a severe heart attack.^[10]

Beazley later announced that he would stand down at the next general election to be held in 2007.^[11]

[edit] See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Kim Beazley

• Politics of Australia
• Australian Labor Party

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official Federal Parliament page
• Official ALP site

Leaders of the Australian Labor Party
Watson | Fisher | Hughes | Tudor | Charlton | Scullin | Curtin | Chifley | Evatt | Calwell | Whitlam | Hayden | Hawke | Keating | Beazley | Crean | Latham | Beazley | Rudd