Archibald Ronald Bevis (born 10 April 1955) is an Australian Labor Party politician who served as the Member for Brisbane from 1990 to 2010. Bevis held a variety of ministerial, shadow ministerial, and parliamentary leadership positions.

Early life and education

Bevis was born in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

and educated at

Ithaca Creek State School Ithaca Creek State School is a heritage-listed state school and war memorial at 49 Lugg Street, Bardon, Queensland, Bardon, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Department of Public Works (Queensland), Queensland Departme ...

and The Gap State High School. He graduated from the then-

Brisbane College of Advanced Education Brisbane College of Advanced Education was a multi-campus Australian higher education institution (College of Advanced Education) from 1982 to 1990. It was formed on 1 January 1982 with the amalgamation of the North Brisbane College of Advanced Edu ...

, now

QUT The Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is a public research university located in the city of Brisbane in Queensland, Australia. It has two major campuses, a modern city campus in Gardens Point and a historical campus in Kelvin Grove. ...

. Whilst studying to become a teacher, Bevis was president of the Australian Student Teachers Federation.

Pre-parliamentary career

Bevis worked as a teacher between 1975 and 1977. He became the Queensland President of Young Labor in 1975, aged 20, and went on to become National President of Young Labor in 1978, aged 23. Between 1978 and 1980, Bevis worked as an organiser for the Queensland Teachers Union. In 1980, aged 25, he was promoted to Deputy General Secretary, a position he held until 1990. From 1988 to 1990, he was also a member of the Labor Party's national executive. He was elected vice-president of the Australian Labor Party from 2000 to 2002.

Parliamentary career

After being elected to the House of Representatives at the 1990 election, Bevis served on a number of committees. He chaired the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology from 1993 to 1994 and the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters from 1992 to 1993. After Labor lost the 1996 election, Bevis was one of only two Queensland Labor members left in Federal Parliament and held the northernmost Labor seat in Federal Parliament. He was defeated in the 2010 Federal Election by Liberal National challenger Teresa Gambaro, then-formerly the member for Petrie, by 1,831 votes.

Ministry

Bevis served as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence from 25 March 1994 to 11 March 1996.

Shadow Ministry

Bevis was promoted to the Shadow Cabinet in 1996, and served until Labor won a majority in the 2007 election.

Committee leadership

Following the 2007 federal election, Bevis was elected chairperson of the

Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS) is a Joint committee (legislative), joint committee of the Parliament of Australia which oversees Australia's primary agencies of the Australian Intelligence Community: Australia ...

and chairperson of the Joint Defence Sub-Committee of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade.

Awards

Bevis has been awarded life membership of the

Australian Education Union The Australian Education Union (AEU) is an Australian trade union, founded in 1984 as the Australian Teachers Union, which is registered with Fair Work Australia as an employee group, and is affiliated with the Australian Council of Trade Unio ...

(AEU), the Queensland Branch of the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major Centre-left politics, centre-left List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia and one of two Major party, major parties in Po ...

(ALP), and the Queensland Teachers Union (QTU). Bevis also received a

Medal of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of then ...

(OAM).

References

External links

Hon. Arch Bevis MP
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bevis, Arch 1955 births Living people Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Labor Right politicians Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Brisbane Australian MPs 1990–1993 Australian MPs 1993–1996 Australian MPs 1996–1998 Australian MPs 1998–2001 Australian MPs 2001–2004 Australian MPs 2004–2007 Australian MPs 2007–2010