Jim Cairns
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The Honourable Jim Cairns |
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| 4th Deputy Prime Minister of Australia | |
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In office 12 June 1974 – 2 July 1975 |
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| Prime Minister | Gough Whitlam |
| Preceded by | Lance Barnard |
| Succeeded by | Frank Crean |
| Treasurer of Australia | |
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In office 11 December 1974 – 6 June 1975 |
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| Prime Minister | Gough Whitlam |
| Preceded by | Frank Crean |
| Succeeded by | Bill Hayden |
| Minister for the Environment | |
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In office 6 June 1975 – 2 July 1975 |
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| Prime Minister | Gough Whitlam |
| Preceded by | Moss Cass |
| Succeeded by | Gough Whitlam |
| Minister for Overseas Trade | |
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In office 19 December 1972 – 11 December 1974 |
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| Prime Minister | Gough Whitlam |
| Preceded by | Gough Whitlam |
| Succeeded by | Frank Crean |
| Minister for Secondary Industry | |
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In office 19 December 1972 – 9 October 1973 |
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| Prime Minister | Gough Whitlam |
| Preceded by | Gough Whitlam |
| Succeeded by | Kep Enderby |
| Deputy Leader of the Labor Party | |
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In office 12 June 1974 – 2 July 1975 |
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| Leader | Gough Whitlam |
| Preceded by | Lance Barnard |
| Succeeded by | Frank Crean |
| Member of the Australian Parliament for Yarra |
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In office 10 December 1955 – 25 October 1969 |
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| Preceded by | Stan Keon |
| Succeeded by | Division abolished |
| Member of the Australian Parliament for Lalor |
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In office 25 October 1969 – 10 November 1977 |
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| Preceded by | Mervyn Lee |
| Succeeded by | Barry Jones |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
James Ford Cairns 4 October 1914 Carlton, Victoria |
| Died | 12 October 2003 (aged 89) Narre Warren East, Victoria |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Political party | Australian Labor Party |
| Spouse(s) | Gwen Robb |
| Alma mater | University of Melbourne |
| Occupation | Policeman, lecturer |
James Ford "Jim" Cairns (4 October 1914 – 12 October 2003), Australian politician, was prominent in the Labor movement through the 1960s and 1970s, and was briefly Deputy Prime Minister in the Whitlam government. He is best remembered as a leader of the movement against Australian involvement in the Vietnam War, for his affair with Junie Morosi and for his later renunciation of conventional politics. He was also an economist, and a prolific writer on economic and social issues, many of them self-published and self-marketed at stalls he ran across Australia after his retirement.
James Ford Cairns was born in Carlton, then a working-class suburb of Melbourne, the son of a clerk. He grew up on a dairy farm north of Sunbury. His father went to the First World War as a lieutenant in the Australian Imperial Forces, but became disillusioned with the war and lost his respect for Britain. He did not return to Australia. Following the war he essentially deserted his family, and he travelled to Africa where he committed suicide after a stay of six or seven years. Cairns later told Gough Whitlam that he had long believed that his father had been killed in World War I before he was eventually told the truth of his father's desertion.
Cairns attended Sunbury State School and later Northcote High School, where he completed his Leaving Certificate. Though life during the Depression was difficult with his mother having to work to provide for the family, and with himself having to make a three-hour daily commute by train, he was a good student, making his name at Northcote High School due to entering the school's broad jump championship and winning it easily with a jump of twenty feet and two inches, his competitors producing jumps of sixteen to seventeen feet.
In 1933 Cairns joined the Police Force in order to have more time for his interest in athletics. He soon became a detective and gained notoriety working in a special surveillance team known as "the dogs" shadowing squad wherein he was involved in a number of dramatic arrests. While working he studied at night and completed an economics degree at the University of Melbourne. He was the first Victorian policeman to hold a tertiary degree. In 1939 he married Gwen Robb (died 2000), whose two sons he adopted.
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Wikipedia