1. Kim Christian Beazley was born on 14 December 1948 and is an Australian former politician and diplomat.
46 Facts About Kim Beazley
1. 2.
Kim Beazley studied at the University of Western Australia and Balliol College, Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar.
3.
Kim Beazley's roles included Minister for Defence from 1984 to 1990, Leader of the House from 1988 to 1996, Minister for Finance from 1993 to 1996 and the ninth deputy prime minister from 1995 to 1996.
4.
Kim Beazley attempted twice to return to the leadership, doing so in 2005 after Labor lost the 2004 election, but was successfully challenged by Kevin Rudd in December 2006 following poor opinion polling.
5.
Kim Beazley retired from Parliament at the 2007 election, which Labor won, and in 2010 was appointed Ambassador to the United States.
6.
Kim Beazley held this role until 2016, before being nominated as Governor of Western Australia by the premier, Mark McGowan, in 2018.
7.
Kim Beazley was born at King Edward Memorial Hospital in Subiaco, Western Australia, on 14 December 1948.
8.
Kim Beazley's mother, Betty Judge, was an Australian athletics champion and record-holder.
9.
Kim Beazley was educated at Hollywood Senior High School and the University of Western Australia, from which he holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts.
10.
Kim Beazley subsequently won a Rhodes Scholarship at Balliol College, Oxford and graduated with a Master of Philosophy.
11.
On his return to Australia, Kim Beazley tutored and lectured in politics at Murdoch University in Perth.
12.
Kim Beazley won selection for the seat of Division of Swan in 1979, and was elected to the House of Representatives at the 1980 election.
13.
Kim Beazley was considered a protege of newly elected Prime Minister Bob Hawke, who like Kim Beazley was a Western Australian former Rhodes Scholar.
14.
Kim Beazley took a particularly active role as defence minister, appearing frequently in the press, and was responsible for establishing the Royal Australian Navy's submarine program, although this would be beset by technical problems.
15.
Kim Beazley served in this role until 1991, and fervently supported Hawke during that year's leadership tensions between Hawke and Paul Keating.
16.
Kim Beazley was considered to be a strong supporter of Keating following Labor's fifth consecutive victory at the 1993 election, and in a reshuffle that year, Keating appointed Kim Beazley as Minister for Finance, where he helped to establish the Government's landmark reform of establishing compulsory superannuation schemes.
17.
Kim Beazley's hold on his seat of Swan grew increasingly tenuous over the years.
18.
Kim Beazley saw his majority more than halved in 1990, an election that came during a bad time for the incumbent Labor government in Western Australia.
19.
Ahead of the 1996 election, Kim Beazley successfully sought nomination for the safer Labor seat of Brand, just south of his previous seat.
20.
Kim Beazley made a strong start in the role, quickly gaining a lead in opinion polls, particularly after Howard broke his previous commitment not to introduce a Goods and Services Tax.
21.
Kim Beazley was Labor's lead representative at the Constitutional Convention in February 1998 which was called to discuss the issue of Australia becoming a republic.
22.
Kim Beazley advocated "minimalist" change and described transition to a republic as "unfinished business" for Australia.
23.
Kim Beazley said that foreigners "find it strange and anachronistic, as many Australians now clearly do, that our head of state is not an Australian".
24.
The party spent much of the following three years well ahead in the opinion polls, and seemed set to win the next election, but in August 2001, following the Tampa affair when the Howard government refused to allow several hundred asylum seekers to disembark on Christmas Island, Kim Beazley was judged to have failed in response.
25.
Kim Beazley's momentum was further stalled by the September 11 attacks, which saw an increase in support for Howard, who pledged to support the United States, and Labor subsequently lost the 2001 election.
26.
Kim Beazley immediately announced that he would contesting the leadership, but was narrowly defeated by Shadow Treasurer Mark Latham by 47 votes to 45.
27.
Later that month, Kim Beazley was forced to battle claims he had a "special relationship" with Ratih Hardjono when he was Defence Minister; it was alleged this relationship posed a security risk.
28.
Labor was comfortably defeated at the 2004 election, at which Kim Beazley became the longest-serving Labor MP.
29.
Kim Beazley said that, whilst winning an election would be difficult, he was adamant that the 2007 election would be a "referendum on the Howard government's unfair industrial relations laws".
30.
Mr Kim Beazley has been referred to as "the best prime minister we never had".
31.
Kim Beazley announced on 13 December 2006 that he would retire from Parliament at the 2007 election, which Labor won in a landslide.
32.
In 2009, Kim Beazley was appointed Companion of the Order of Australia for his service to the Australian Parliament.
33.
Kim Beazley was appointed a professorial fellow at the University of Western Australia, teaching politics, public policy and international relations.
34.
Kim Beazley served as Chancellor of the Australian National University for the duration of 2009, having succeeded Allan Hawke.
35.
Kim Beazley was appointed as a Member of the Council of Advisors of the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney.
36.
Kim Beazley was succeeded by former Treasurer Joe Hockey in January 2016.
37.
In February 2016, shortly after returning to Australia, Kim Beazley was made president of the Australian Institute of International Affairs.
38.
Kim Beazley was named a distinguished fellow of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
39.
In September 2017, it was reported that Kim Beazley was the favoured choice of the premier of Western Australia, Mark McGowan, to replace Kerry Sanderson as governor of Western Australia when Sanderson's term expired in 2018.
40.
On 3 April 2018, McGowan confirmed that on his advice, Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia had approved Kim Beazley to replace Sanderson.
41.
Kim Beazley was appointed chairman of the Australian War Memorial Council on 2 December 2022.
42.
Kim Beazley has strongly supported progress on the AUKUS security partnership, arguing that nuclear-powered submarines will be "worth the wait" and advocating for faster approvals for the export of nuclear materials.
43.
Kim Beazley has argued that a further $5 to $8 billion in military expenditure was needed annually to ensure Australia could adequately defend itself.
44.
Kim Beazley married Susie Annus in 1990 and they raised their daughter Rachel.
45.
Daughter Hannah Kim Beazley followed her father into politics in 2019.
46.
Kim Beazley unsuccessfully contested Beazley's former seat of Swan at the 2019 federal election.