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

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, England and was employed by the

Commonwealth Bank The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), or CommBank, is an Australian multinational bank with businesses across New Zealand, Asia, the United States and the United Kingdom. It provides a variety of financial services including retail, busines ...

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 simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms the f ...

member in the

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

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 agency in a country responsible for collecting tariffs and for controlling the flow of goods, including animals, transports, personal effects, and hazardous items, into and out of a country. Traditionally, customs ...

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 the Australian Government. SBS operates six TV channels ( SBS, SBS Viceland, SBS World ...

and

Triple J Triple J (stylised in all lowercase) is a government-funded, national Australian Radio in Australia, radio station intended to appeal to listeners of alternative music, which began broadcasting in January 1975. The station also places a greate ...

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 voice, mobile, internet access, pay television and other products and services. It is a member of the S&P/ASX 20 ...

'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 20th-century Australian politicians Government ministers of Australia {{Australia-Labor-representative-stub