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Jim Bacon
41st Premier of Tasmania
In office 14 September 1998 – 21 March 2004
Deputy	Paul Lennon
Preceded by	Tony Rundle
Succeeded by	Paul Lennon
Born	May 15, 1950 Melbourne, Victoria
Died	June 20, 2004 Hobart, Tasmania
Constituency	Denison
Political party	Australian Labor Party
Spouse	Honey Bacon

James Alexander Bacon AC (May 15, 1950 - June 20, 2004) was Premier of Tasmania from 1998 to 2004. Bacon was born in Melbourne; his father Frank, a doctor, died when his son 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. He became an official of the Builders Labourers Federation, which 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 Member of the House of Assembly in 1996. He became leader of the Labor Party in 1997 and won the state election in 1998, defeating the Liberal Party government under Tony Rundle. His government was re-elected in 2002 in a landslide victory for his party.

His time in office was said to have been hugely successful, for the state economy as a whole, for his popularity with the people of the state, and also for tourism with the introduction of two more Bass Strait ferries, and beginning a ferry run between Devonport and Sydney. (However, the Sydney service has since proven unsuccessful and was discontinued in 2006.) He controversially appointed Richard Butler to the office Governor of Tasmania in 2003.

On February 23, 2004, Bacon announced he was standing aside as Premier, after revealing that he had been diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer ten days earlier, and that he wanted to spend with his family and friends whatever time was left to him. Paul Lennon, who had been Deputy Premier, succeeded Bacon as Premier.

Bacon, a 35-year smoker, died as a result of the cancer on June 20, 2004, at Calvary Hospital in Hobart. A state funeral was held on June 25; many state and federal politicians (from both major parties) attended, including Liberal Prime Minister John Howard, all the state Premiers, Opposition Leader Mark Latham, former Opposition Leader Simon Crean, and former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam.

Bacon was posthumously awarded the degree of Doctor of Laws honoris causa from the University of Tasmania in August 2004, and his appointment as a Companion of the Order of Australia in June 2005. (The Order of Australia is not awarded posthumously, but Bacon had been nominated before his death.)

He had two sons, Mark and Scott, from a twenty year defacto relationship with Lynette Francis. He also had a stepson, Shane. He had four sisters: Wendy, Jenny, Mary and Janet.

• Tasmanian parliamentary profile
• Jim Bacon's maiden speech to parliament

• Maoist tribute to ex-Maoist Jim Bacon (registration required)
• The selling-out of Tasmania response to the eulogies by author Richard Flanagan

Preceded by Michael Field	Opposition Leader of Tasmania 1997-1998	Succeeded by Tony Rundle
Preceded by Tony Rundle	Premier of Tasmania 1998–2004	Succeeded by Paul Lennon

Premiers of Tasmania
Champ | Gregson | Weston | Smith | Chapman | Whyte | Dry | Wilson | Innes | Kennerley | Reibey | Fysh | Giblin | Crowther | Douglas | Agnew | Dobson | Braddon | E. Lewis | Propsting | Evans | Earle | Solomon | Lee | Hayes | Lyons | McPhee | Ogilvie | Dwyer-Gray | Cosgrove | Brooker | Reece | Bethune | Neilson | Lowe | Holgate | Gray | Field | Groom | Rundle | Bacon | Lennon