Peter Beattie is a former Premier of Queensland. Born in 1952, he was the youngest of seven children and was brought up by his grandmother in Atherton, nearly 2000 kilometres north of Brisbane.

During his youth, he was a scout, a keen sportsman, school captain and dux of Atherton State High School. It was there that he met Heather, the childhood sweetheart to whom he is still happily married. Peter and Heather have three children.

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.