1973: Kim Beazley – ‘Essence of intelligent statesmanship’
By John Bond
05/07/2021
In 1973 Australia’s national elections brought a Labor Government to power, and Kim Beazley – a familiar face at Caux – was appointed Minister for Education. Beazley was determined to ensure that every Australian child received the best possible education, and launched a transformation in Australian schools.
The schools were either run by churches or by the state, and there was immense resentment at the inequities in their state funding. Under Beazley’s leadership, the Department of Education started funding all schools according to their need, giving the largest grants to the poorest schools.
When the Australian National University awarded an honorary doctorate to Beazley in 1976, the citation stated that his action had ‘healed an ulcer that has festered in our society for close to 200 years. Sectarian bitterness, which has focused on schools and their funding, was dealt a death blow by needs-based funding.’
Beazley regarded his first visit to Caux in 1953 as fundamental to his political approach. At Caux he had encountered the idea of taking time alone to seek God’s guidance, having ‘nothing to prove, nothing to justify and nothing to gain for yourself’.
When he did, he realized that he had ‘formed the habit of not being absolutely accurate in political statements’. As he told the conference, ‘I analyzed the government’s mistakes, but never their virtues. This is one of the most mischievous forms of lying in politics. I have decided to concern myself daily with the challenge of how to live out God’s will, to turn the searchlight of absolute honesty on to my motives, and to try to see the world with the clarity of absolute purity... and absolute love.’
His approach to people – his eyes, his voice – were different. (...) His new approach showed me the possibilities of change.
A first step for him was ‘sitting down and writing a letter of honesty to my wife’. And when he returned home she found that ‘his approach to people – his eyes, his voice – were different’. Life was not easy for her with three children and a husband away in Parliament on the other side of Australia for long periods. She said: ‘I had seen many marriage breakups in political life. His new approach showed me the possibilities of change.’
Some of his parliamentary colleagues were hostile. ‘Facing the prospect of political destruction at this moment is young Kim Beazley,’ wrote a prominent political columnist later that year. ‘Powerful, office-hungry individuals fear that his idealism and his current determination to pursue the truth, whatever the price, could cost the Labor Party the next election. The story they are assiduously and effectively peddling is, “Beazley has lost his balance.” So the word has gone out, “Destroy him”.’
They did not destroy him. He was returned to Parliament at every election for 32 years. When he retired, the Melbourne Herald wrote that he was ‘beyond any dispute one of the best Members of Parliament Australia has ever had’.
In particular, he had played a significant role in advancing Aboriginal land rights, voting rights, health care and education in 22 Aboriginal languages. The ANU doctoral citation stated, ‘It has become popular over the last years to recognize the injustices 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 Kim Beazley has to bring about that change in attitude.’ When he died in 2007, three former Prime Ministers attended his funeral.
Beazley summed up his approach: ‘The thoughts of God, given primacy in the life of a person, bring to the innermost motives the virtue of mercy, and with it the cure for hatred that can turn the tide of history. This is the essence of intelligent statesmanship.’
Watch a short film about Kim Beazley from our archives.
Watch an interview with Kim Beazley on his ideas and visons for the future, 1981 (Music: David Mills)
________________________________________________________________________________
This story is part of our series 75 Years of Stories about individuals who found new direction and inspiration through Caux, one for each year from 1946 to 2021. If you know a story appropriate for this series, please do pass on your ideas by email to John Bond or Yara Zhgeib. If you would like to know more about the early years of Initiatives of Change and the conference centre in Caux please click here and visit the platform For A New World.
- Photos (except photo Kim and Betty Beazley): Initiatives of Change
- Photo Kim and Betty Beazley: Danielle Maillefer
- Short film Kim Beazley: Initiatives of Change
- Interview As We Want the World to Live: Interview with Dr Kim Beazley: Initiatives of Change
related stories
75 Years of Stories: Meet the team!
When we launched the 75 Years of Stories series in February 2021 about 75 years of encounters at the Initiatives of Change conference centre in Caux, we had no idea what an adventure we had embarked o...
2021: Initiatives of Change Switzerland – Opening Caux’s doors to a new chapter
As our series of 75 stories for 75 years of the Initiatives of Change conference centre in Caux draws to an end, the President of Initiatives of Change Switzerland, Christine Beerli, and its two Co-Di...
2020: Aad Burger – Struck by a virus
In 2020, the Caux Forum went online in response to the pandemic. Its organizers found that this made Caux accessible to people all over the world who could not have taken part in normal circumstances....
2019: Marc Isserles – ‘We must save the children’
During World War II, the Caux Palace (later the Initiatives of Change conference centre in Switerland) provided a refuge for Jews fleeing the Shoah. Over the years, some of them – or their descendants...
2018: Wael Boubaker – ‘Climate change should be top top top priority’
When Tunisian economics graduate Wael Boubaker joined the Caux Peace and Leadership Programme (CPLP) in 2018, he expected a conference which would look good on his CV, and some beautiful scenery. Inst...
2017: Tanaka Mhunduru – A home for the world
Tanaka Mhunduru from Zimbabwe is one of the organizers of the Caux Peace and Leadership Programme (CPLP), a one-month programme for young people from around the world. He first took part in 2017....
2016: Diana Damsa – ‘It made me feel I counted’
The Winter Gathering of 2016 was a special experience for Diana Damsa – not just because she experienced Caux in winter, but also because, for the first time in eight years, she had no responsibilitie...
2015: Lisbeth Lasserre – ‘The richness in art’
Lisbeth Lasserre came from Winterthur, where her grandparents, Hedy and Arthur Hahnloser, had built up a private collection of art at their home, Villa Flora. Amongst their artist friends were Bonnard...
2014: Catherine Guisan – Europe’s Unfinished Business
Catherine Guisan is Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota, USA. She has written two books on the ethical foundations of European integration. In 2014 she spoke at Caux’s first se...
2013: Tom Duncan – Restoring a healthy planet
2013 saw the first full-length Caux Dialogues on Land and Security (CDLS). These events, which took place at the Caux Conference and Seminar Centre, focus on the links between sustainable land managem...
2012: Merel Rumping – Going out on a limb
When Merel Rumping from the Netherlands first visited Caux in 2012, she had a goal in mind – ‘to explore how I could contribute to a more just world through my professional activities’....
2011: Lucette Schneider – Choices which make the magic of Caux
For many years, Lucette Schneider from Switzerland organized the team which gathered in the early mornings to wash, peel and chop vegetables for the kitchens of the Caux conference centre. ...
2010: Mohan Bhagwandas – Addressing the crisis of integrity
Mohan Bhagwandas is all too aware of his carbon footprint. In the 13 years from 2006 to 2019, he flew 17 times from his home city of Melbourne, Australia, to Switzerland to take part in the Caux confe...
2009: Rajmohan Gandhi – Bridges between India and Pakistan
25 distinguished Indians and Pakistanis came to Caux in 2009 with the aim of building bridges between their countries. The man who initiated the gathering was Rajmohan Gandhi, a grandson of Mahatma Ga...
2008: Learning to be a Peacemaker – ‘An eye-opener to the world’
2008 saw the launch of an unusual course on Islam’s approach to peacemaking for young Muslims and non-Muslims, devised by Imam Ajmal Masroor from the UK. The course’s coordinator, Peter Riddell, descr...
