Kim Edward Beazley Sr. AO (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.
Beazley, the youngest of seven children, was born in Northam, Western Australia and grew up in Fremantle. He showed early scholastic promise, winning a place at 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 worked as a teacher at Arthur River, East Fremantle, 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.
He was active in the Labor Party, and the elegance of his writings and the eloquence of his speeches marked him out as a rising star. He served as vice president of the State School Teachers' Union and as a member of the State Executive of the Party.
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 became the Father of the House in 1975, and held his seat until he retired in 1977.
A committed Christian (he was brought up and baptised in the Church of Christ), and member of Moral Rearmament, Beazley was prominent on the right-wing of the Labor Party during the ideological battles of the 1950s and 1960s. 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. Another important theme running through decades was his passionate commitment to render dignity and respect to Australia’s Aboriginal peoples.
