Peter Douglas Beattie is a former Australian politician who served as the 36th Premier of Queensland, in office from 1998 to 2007. He was the state leader of the Labor from 1996 to 2007.
Beattie was born in Sydney but grew up in Atherton, Queensland. He worked as a lawyer and union secretary before entering politics. Beattie was elected to the Queensland Legislative Assembly at the 1989 state election. He served as a government minister from 1995 to 1996 under Wayne Goss, and then replaced Goss as party leader following a change in government. As leader of the opposition, Beattie led the Labor Party back to power at the 1998 election, and won further victories at the 2001, 2004 and 2006 elections. He retired in 2007 and was succeeded by his deputy Anna Bligh.
After retiring as premier, Beattie was appointed to a series of public relations positions with the state and federal Labor governments. He made an unsuccessful attempt to enter federal politics at the 2013 election, standing in the Division of Forde. In 2016, Beattie was made chairman of the organising committee for the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast. He was appointed chairman of the Australian Rugby League Commission in February 2018.
“I'm a media tart. You tell me one politician that's not a media tart, tell me one that's not.”
As quoted in "Beattie an unashamed 'media tart'" in AM Archive (11 May 2000) http://www.abc.net.au/am/stories/s125625.htm
