Kim Edward Beazley (30 September 1917 – 12 October 2007) was an Australian politician who served as a member of the House of Representatives from 1945 to 1977, representing the Labor Party. He was Minister for Education in the Whitlam government from 1972 to 1975.
Early life and education
Kim Edward Beazley, the youngest of seven children, was born on 30 September 1917 in Northam, Western Australia. He was the son of Alfred Beazley, a storeman and packer, and his wife Mary Wright.
Beazley grew up in Fremantle. He attended the academically selective Perth Modern School (1933–1935), where he topped the state in history and English. He went on to Claremont Teachers College, and first worked as a teacher at the Richmond State School in East Fremantle, and then Arthur River, Midland Junction, and Claremont. Beazley later studied politics at the University of Western Australia (UWA), and tutored at Claremont Teachers College and at UWA. He was later to gain an MA from the Australian National University.
In Parliament
On the death in office of Prime Minister John Curtin in 1945, the 27-year-old Beazley was preselected for, and won, Curtin's Federal Parliament seat of Fremantle. He was the youngest member of the federal parliament when elected, and was known as "the student prince". He spent 32 years in Parliament, holding his seat until he retired in 1977.
thumb|upright|Beazley in 1971
A committed Christian (he was brought up and baptised in the Churches of Christ), and member of Moral Re-Armament (MRA), Beazley was prominent on the right wing of the Labor Party during the ideological battles of the 1950s and 1960s. He claimed a central role in the events leading to the Labor Party's fateful 1954 split and harboured lifelong regret that he failed to help avert the split when he felt it had been in his power to do so.
In 1971, Beazley took Galarrwuy Yunupingu and Wulanybuma Wununggumurra (the latter a signatory to the Yirrkala bark petitions), to the Moral Re-Armament conference in Caux, Switzerland, Switzerland. He continued to champion the cause of MRA until his death.
Beazley was the education minister in the Whitlam government from 1972 to 1975. Though afflicted with severe illness for part of his tenure, he carried out important reforms in the education field, such as abolishing university fees and introducing needs-based funding for all schools through the Schools Commission. He became the Father of the House.
After the defeat of the Whitlam government in 1975, Beazley was elected to the Labor front bench, but resigned in March 1976 when it was revealed that Gough Whitlam and Bill Hartley, with the ALP national secretary, David Combe, had been seeking money from the Iraqi Ba'ath Party to pay for the party's election campaign.
Personal life
Beazley married Betty Judge, a fellow teacher, union official, and an athlete (she was Australian women's 880 yards champion), on 7 February 1948, at Claremont. They had two sons, including Rhodes Scholar, Deputy Prime Minister and Governor of Western Australia Kim Christian Beazley, and one daughter.