Jim Bacon
James Alexander Bacon AC (
May 15,
1950 -
June 20,
2004) was
Premier of
Tasmania from
1998 to
2004. Bacon was born in
Melbourne and educated at
Scotch College, later at
Monash University, but he did not graduate. At Monash he was a
Maoist student leader. He became an official of the
Builders Labourers Federation, which sent him to Tasmania as an organiser. He later became leader of the trade union movement as Secretary of the
Tasmanian Trades & Labor Council.
Having abandoned
Communism and joined the
Australian Labor Party, Bacon was elected as a Member of the House of Assembly in
1996. He became leader of the Labor Party in
1997 and won the state election in
1998, defeating the
Liberal Party government under
Tony Rundle. His government was re-elected in
2002 in a landslide victory for his party.
His time in office was said to have been hugely successful, for the state economy as a whole, for his popularity with the people of the state, and also for tourism with the introduction of two more
Bass Strait ferries, and beginning a ferry run between
Devonport and
Sydney. (However, the Sydney service has since proven unsuccessful and was discontinued in 2006.) He controversially appointed
Richard Butler to the office
Governor of Tasmania in 2003.
On
February 23,
2004 Bacon announced he was standing aside as Premier, after revealing that he had been diagnosed with inoperable
lung cancer ten days earlier, and that he wanted to spend with his family and friends whatever time was left to him.
Paul Lennon, who had been Deputy Premier, succeeded Bacon as Premier.
Bacon died as a result of the cancer, on
June 20,
2004, at Calvary Hospital in Hobart. A
state funeral was held on June 25; many state and federal politicians (from both major parties) attended, including Liberal Prime Minister
John Howard, all the state Premiers, Opposition Leader
Mark Latham, former Opposition Leader
Simon Crean, and former Prime Minister
Gough Whitlam.
Bacon was posthumously awarded the degree of
Doctor of Laws honoris causa from the
University of Tasmania in August 2004, and his appointment as a Companion of the
Order of Australia in June 2005. (The Order of Australia is not awarded posthumously, but Bacon had been nominated before his death.)
*
Tasmanian parliamentary profile*
Jim Bacon's maiden speech to parliament*
Maoist tribute to ex-Maoist Jim Bacon (registration required)
*
The selling-out of Tasmania response to the eulogies by author
Richard Flanagan
