Before Parliament
Beattie was born in Sydney as the youngest of seven children. He was raised by his grandmother at Atherton, a small town in North Queensland. At school, he met Heather Scott-Halliday, whom he later married. They have three adult children and live in Wilston, a suburb of Brisbane.
After Beattie moved to Brisbane, he graduated with a law degree from the University of Queensland (where he was President of the Student Club at St John's College, University of Queensland), earned a Master of Arts degree from Queensland University of Technology, and then entered the legal practice. In 1974 he joined the Labor Party, which had been in opposition for 17 years and had just suffered the worst defeat in its history at the hands of the dominant National Party Premier, Joh Bjelke-Petersen.
Beattie became involved in the campaign led by Dr Denis Murphy to reform the Queensland branch of the party, which was dominated by elderly and conservative trade union leaders. In 1981 the federal Labor Party leader, Bill Hayden, led a federal intervention in Queensland, and Beattie became Queensland State Secretary. Eight years later, Wayne Goss became Queensland's first Labor Premier since Vince Gair in 1957.
Prior to his election to Parliament and in addition to State Secretary, Beattie was a solicitor of the Supreme Court of Queensland and secretary of the Railway Stationmasters' Union.
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