Jim Bacon

James Alexander Bacon, AC (15 May 1950 – 20 June 2004) was Premier of Tasmania from 1998 to 2004. Bacon was born in Melbourne; his father Frank, a doctor, died when Jim was twelve, leaving him to be raised by his mother Joan. He was educated at Scotch College and later at Monash University, but he did not graduate. At Monash he was a Maoist student leader. Jim moved to Western Australia and after going back on the job as a labourer again became an official of the Builders Labourers Federation, which later sent him to Tasmania as an organiser. He later became leader of the trade union movement as Secretary of the Tasmanian Trades & Labor Council. Having abandoned Communism and joined the Australian Labor Party, Bacon was elected as a...