David Peter Beddall (born 27 November 1948) is a former Australian politician. Beddall was born in

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

, England and was employed by the

Commonwealth Bank The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), also known as Commonwealth Bank or simply CommBank, is an Australian multinational bank with businesses across New Zealand, Asia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. It provides a variety of fi ...

and was a self-employed commercial finance consultant before he entered parliament. He was elected as

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 ...

member in the

Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Australian Senate, Senate. Its composition and powers are set out in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. ...

for the seat of Fadden at the 1983 election, and then for the seat of Rankin at the 1984 election. In April 1990, he was appointed Minister for Small Business and

Customs Customs is an authority or Government agency, agency in a country responsible for collecting tariffs and for controlling International trade, the flow of goods, including animals, transports, personal effects, and hazardous items, into and out ...

in the Hawke ministry (Minister for Small Business, Construction and Customs from December 1991). In March 1993, he was appointed junior Communications Minister (serving concurrently with senior Communications Minister Bob Collins) in the second Keating Ministry. As Communications Minister, Beddall launched

SBS television The Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) is an Australian hybrid-funded public service broadcaster. About 80 percent of funding for the company is derived from tax revenue. SBS operates six TV channels ( SBS, SBS Viceland, SBS World Movies, SBS ...

and

Triple J Triple J is an Australian government-funded national radio station founded in 1975 as a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). It aims to appeal to young listeners of alternative music, and plays far more Australian conten ...

radio across different parts of Australia, and took the early steps in

Telstra Telstra Group Limited is an Australian telecommunications company that builds and operates telecommunications networks and markets related products and services. It is a member of the S&P/ASX 20 stock index, and is Australia's largest telecomm ...

's Future Mode of Operation digital transformation. In December 1993, he and Collins left the Communications portfolio, which was taken by Michael Lee, and Beddall replaced Lee as Minister For Resources. Beddall lost that portfolio with the defeat of the Keating government at the 1996 election, in which he was one of only two Labor MPs returned from Queensland. He retired from parliament at the 1998 election.

Notes

Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Fadden Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Rankin Members of the Australian House of Representatives 1948 births Living people Government ministers of Australia Australian MPs 1983–1984 Australian MPs 1984–1987 Australian MPs 1987–1990 Australian MPs 1990–1993 Australian MPs 1993–1996 Australian MPs 1996–1998 {{Australia-Labor-representative-stub