Kim Beazley: almost a prime minister, but today enjoying his lower profile

When I arrived at Government House in Perth for a rare interview with the 33rd Governor of Western Australia, Kim Beazley, I was shown into the drawing room where most meetings take place.

Beazley instead insisted we talk in his study, located at the other end of the building, where we sat around an antique table surrounded by books, artworks and mementos from a life of public service.

Beazley, who was sworn in as governor on May 1 last year, was reluctant to be interviewed for this column. Nobody likes talking governors, he stressed, and he keeps a low profile in accordance with his vice-regal responsibilities. Even so, Beazley could not be busier hosting functions, promoting the state and performing his official duties. He is determined to avoid any suggestion he is a political commentator.

After an extraordinary public life that included serving as a federal MP (1980-2007), minister in the Hawke and Keating governments (1983-96), deputy prime minister (1995-96), Labor leader (1996-01; 2005-06) and ambassador to the US (2010-16), Beazley, 71, says he has found his guber­natorial role to be very enjoyable, worthwhile and rewarding.

“Most of my life I have been in a position of great power and little responsibility,” he says. “Now I am in a position of massive responsibility and no power. And you have to be terribly conscious of that — conscious that you are nonpartisan. You also have a mandate, and it is not an unusual mandate for governors, to be an advocate for the state.

“So in about four or five key areas I have been building up ­activities at the house and outside with visits and very rare public statements, supporting directions that are in this state’s interests for next generation industry (and) next generation mining, for ­engagement with defence industries, for things that we ought to be doing with the indigenous community and explaining things that we are doing with the indigenous community, and big help wherever I can for the arts and culture.”

Beazley, as you would expect, discussed the role at length with Premier Mark McGowan before his appointment. He says nothing has surprised him in the job. He notes that he had an exposure to vice-regal matters as vice-president of the executive council (1988-1991), and as a rostered minister from time to time, when he ­attended meetings with governors-general Sir Ninian Stephen and Bill Hayden at Government House at Yarralumla.

“(It is) a bit different at the state level than the federal level, at least at the moment it is, because at the federal level you generally have fights between the houses and there is enormous internal fights inside the parties,” he explains. “You are always likely to be dragged into a judgment about ­internal party matters and leadership changes or calls for double-dissolutions, all that sort of thing. Not at the state level, at least at the moment, it is pretty peaceful.”

Beazley regularly meets with McGowan. He also makes an ­effort to talk with opposition MPs from time to time.

He again stresses that his role is nonpartisan rather than bipartisan and is careful to execute his duties responsibly. “It is considered polite by a premier to attend a meeting with the governor and tell the governor about the direction of the government and how he feels things are going,” he says.

The governor is, of course, the representative of the British monarch in Western Australia. Beazley has met the Queen many times and has a good relationship with her. A signed photo of Beazley meeting the Queen has pride of place in the drawing room. He has great respect and admiration for her. He reveals there is “very little” formal correspondence between Government House and Buckingham Palace.

While Beazley was criticised by some for accepting the vice-regal post because he is a republican — not the only governor or governor-general to have such views — many of the experiences he gained in politics and diplomacy have equipped him for the role as much as any other governor’s past has.

“(It is) completely different from my life as minister and parliamentarian, and party leader,” he says. (It is) a little bit closer to my life as an ambassador because we entertain in much the same way. And as ambassador you are putting forward an Australian point of view. Here, you are marshalling an opinion for the objectives of the state. Different, but the techniques and the character are almost exactly the same.”

It is important that governors and governors-general help demystify their role by explaining to voters how they view their duties and obligations, and their priorities. As Beazley gave me a tour of the magnificent Jacobean and Gothic Revival-style Government House in the centre of Perth, he spoke about his extensive daily program, recent regional visits and his patronage of an extensive array of community organisations.

Few Australians have given more to the public service of their country than Beazley. It begs the question, at the end of a dismal decade, how different our politics might be if Beazley rather than Kevin Rudd had been prime minister at the start of this decade having won the 2007 election? This was, understandably, not a topic Beazley was keen to broach.

But he is convinced that he would have won the 2007 election if not defeated by Rudd in a leadership ballot a year earlier. He would have run a better government, drawing on years of experience, and would not have alienated his party and cabinet, the public service and the voters. Beazley, however, is not looking back. After squeezing me into his busy afternoon, he had yet another function to host in the evening.