Kimberley ("Kim") Maxwell Yeadon (born 25 July 1956) is a former

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

n politician, who served as a member of the

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

Legislative Assembly. from 1990 to 2007, representing the

Electoral district of Granville Granville is an New South Wales Legislative Assembly electoral districts, electoral district of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales in Western Sydney, Sydney's West. It is curr ...

as a member of the Labor Party.

Early life and background

Yeadon was born in

Goulburn, New South Wales Goulburn ( ) is a regional city in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia, approximately south-west of Sydney and north-east of Canberra. It was proclaimed as Australia's first inland city through letters patent by Queen Victor ...

, but was brought up in Western

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

. He was educated at Patrician Brothers' High School in Granville and received an Electrical Mechanics Certificate at Granville

TAFE Technical and further education or simply TAFE () is the common name in Australia for vocational education, as a subset of tertiary education. TAFE institutions provide a wide range of predominantly vocational courses. Colloquially also known ...

College, part of South Western Sydney Institute of TAFE. He attended the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

from 1982 and 1986 and received a BA. He was previously an electrician and trade union research officer.

Political career

Yeadon represented Granville for the Labor Party from 1990 to 2007. He was Minister for Land and Water Conservation from May 1995 to December 1997 and Minister for Ports from December 1997 to April 1999. He was Minister for Information Technology and Minister for Forestry from December 1997 to April 2003 and Minister for Western Sydney and Minister for Energy and Utilities from April 1999 to April 2003.

Later life

Yeadon was one of two deputy chancellors of the University of Western Sydney (now

Western Sydney University Western Sydney University, formerly the University of Western Sydney, is an Australian multi-campus public research university in the Greater Western region of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The university in its current form was founde ...

) from 2008 to 2013. He had first joined the board in 2003, served three terms as a board member and was awarded an honorary degree by the university in 2014. In 2010 he was controversially appointed to the boards of Delta Electricity and Erraring Energy in an emergency measure to ensure the companies' sale, after the boards of both entities had resigned en masse. It was reported that he had been advising on the sale process prior to this appointment. He was removed from both boards the following year after a change of Government.

References

Living people Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly 1956 births Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of New South Wales 21st-century Australian politicians University of Sydney alumni Western Sydney University people People from Goulburn {{Australia-Labor-NewSouthWales-MP-stub Ministers for energy (New South Wales) Ministers for the environment (New South Wales)