Kim Beazley Senior was that rare breed – an honest politician who earned the admiration and trust of all sides of politics. 'It's all about leadership' was the headline in Melbourne's The Age on Monday 15 October. Australia's Prime Minister John Howard had just called a general election claiming that the country doesn't need new leadership or old leadership, it just needs the 'right' leadership. At the same time, the 17th Communist Party Congress had just got underway in Beijing which will choose Communist China's fifth generation of leaders. In his opening speech President Hu Jintao highlighted governance as a key issue at a time when many Chinese are frustrated by corruption and excessive bureaucracy.
So with issues of leadership very much 'in the air' it is poignant that newspapers in Britain and Australia have been paying tribute to Kim Beazley Senior, one of Australia's outstanding politicians who died on Friday 12 October. Today politics often seems to be reduced to the science of public relations and focus-groups and the task of politicians seems to be to identify the fabled 'middle ground' and bravely declare 'here I stand'. As a result, instead of leadership we have 'followership'. Beazley was not that kind of politician. Prime Minister John Howard described him as 'a man of very high principle' who was 'sustained by a strong Christian faith'. 'His demeanour and behaviour both in the Parliament and in the general discharge of his responsibilities as a minister set a very high standard.' Opposition (Labor) Leader Kevin Rudd said that Mr Beazley Senior - father of former opposition leader Kim Beazley - was a servant and leader of the highest order.
In a joint statement with Education Spokesman Stephen Smith, they said that the Labor Party had 'lost an icon' who had 'implemented some of the most significant education reforms in Australian history'. 'Many of us in Parliament would not be here were it not for Kim's contributions,' they said. With tributes like that (and the promise of a State funeral) non-Australians might be forgiven for thinking that Beazley must be a former Prime Minister. He was not. Beazley spent 28 of his 32 years in Parliament in what, he once despaired, was 'Her Majesty's permanent Opposition'. A year before Australians voted the Whitlam Labor government to power, Beazley told a conference in India: 'I have come to believe the true function of an Opposition is to out-think the government at the point of its successes. Only then can alternative policies be framed and social advance take place.'
Nearly three decades in Opposition had shown him that 'the question of motive is the key to social advance... If your motive is power, you will most likely distort the truth. If your motive is the truth, you will be fit for power.' He served as Education Minister for just a few short years 1972-75. Many of the changes he effected were from his time in opposition - made possible because he was known as a man of integrity whose motives were trusted by politicians from both sides of parliament. So, for example, he was able to work with Liberal Minister (later Governor General) Sir Paul Hasluck towards the historic 1967 referendum which recognized Aboriginals for the first time as Australians in the census.
When the Commonwealth Government set up a Department for Aboriginal Affairs, Prime Minister Harold Holt asked for Beazley's advice. Later, as Minister for Education, Beazley instituted changes allowing Aboriginals to be schooled in their own languages - previously indigenous children had been beaten for speaking anything other than English in school. At the start of the struggle for Aboriginal Land Rights, a petition was presented to Parliament. Written in the Yolgnu Matha language and translated into English, the petition asked that the House appoint a Select Committee, 'accompanied by competent interpreters, to hear the views of the Yirrkala people'. From the Opposition benches Beazley presented the petition to Parliament, moving that the Select Committee be formed and stressing that this was 'not a party question... It is not a question of the Government being on trial. This Parliament (is) on trial.' Then something rare in Australian politics happened: Paul Hasluck, the responsible Minister, rose and immediately accepted the motion from the Opposition. 'I've only known this to happen once in 32 years,' said Beazley. Early in his political career, Beazley was sent by parliament to attend the 1953 coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.
Intrigued by the ideas of Moral Re-Armament (as Initiatives of Change was then known) he decided to spend a week at the IofC centre in Caux, Switzerland, on his way back. One week turned into seven. 'I had to admit that what I saw in Caux was far more significant for the peace and sanity of the world than anything being done at the time in Australian politics,' he recalled later. He accepted the challenge of a British Labour Party friend to make the experiment of taking time alone to seek God's guidance, having 'nothing to prove, nothing to justify and nothing to gain for yourself' (a shockingly subversive thing to say to a politician, he said later). The experiment turned into a habit and guiding principle, giving rise to his conviction that he should make the rehabilitation of the Aboriginal people a central point of his public life. Years later when awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the Australian National University, the citation stated: 'It has become popular over the last years to recognize the injustices that have been done to Aboriginal people. But over the last half century this was far from popular. In that time, few people have done as much, and none have done more, than Beazley to bring about that change in attitude. Today many are cynical about politicians. The example of Kim Beazley Senior shows that it is possible to be honest in politics and that a person of integrity can be more effective in opposition than many lesser 'leaders' who achieve high office.
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