Jim Balfour Explained

James Charles Murray Balfour
Honorific-Prefix:The Hon
Honorific-Suffix:MP
Office:Minister for Minerals and Energy
Premier:Rupert Hamer
Term Start:24 August 1972
Term End:6 September 1977
Predecessor:new ministry
Successor:Digby Crozier
Office1:Minister for Fuel & Power
Minister of Mines
Premier1:Henry Bolte
Rupert Hamer
Term Start1:16 May 1967
Term End1:4 June 1981
Predecessor1:George Reid (Fuel & Power)
Thomas Darcy (Mines)
Successor1:new ministry
Office2:Minister of Lands
Minister of Soldier Settlement
Minister for Conservation
Premier2:Henry Bolte
Term Start2:14 July 1964
Term End2:2 April 1967
Predecessor2:Keith Turnbull
Successor2:Bill Borthwick
Constituency Am3:Narracan
Assembly3:Victorian Legislative
Term Start3:29 April 1967
Term End3:1 February 1982
Predecessor3:new seat
Successor3:John Delzoppo
Constituency Am4:Morwell
Assembly4:Victorian Legislative
Term Start4:28 May 1955
Term End4:2 April 1967
Predecessor4:new seat
Successor4:Archie Tanner
Birth Date:September 1914
Birth Place:Windsor, Victoria
Death Date:19 May 1990
Death Place:Willow Grove, Victoria
Party:Liberal Party
Spouse:Mary Emma Savige
Alma Mater:Geelong College

James Charles Murray Balfour, (30 September 1914 – 19 May 1990) was a long-serving Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) and Cabinet Minister in the Legislative Assembly, in the State Parliament of Victoria, Australia.

Born in the Melbourne suburb of Windsor to James Miller Balfour and his wife Katrine Elizabeth Alice (née Murray), Balfour was educated at Geelong College. He went on to become a dairy farmer, settling at Willow Grove near Trafalgar in the Latrobe Valley of Gippsland, Victoria. On 6 February 1937 he married Mary Emma Savige, with whom he had five sons.

From 1946 to 1967, Balfour served on Narracan Shire Council, and served as President from 1946-1947, 1950-1951, and 1960-1961.

In 1955, he was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly for Morwell, representing the Liberal Party.

From 1958 to 1961 he was Government Whip, and from 1961 to 1964 Cabinet Secretary. In 1964, he entered Cabinet as Minister of Water Supply and Mines, a portfolio that was reorganised to become Lands, Soldier Settlement and Conservation a few months later. In 1967, he moved to the new seat of Narracan and became Minister of Fuel and Power and of Mines. In 1977 he became Minister for Minerals and Energy, a position from which he resigned in 1981, in readiness for his retirement at the 1982 election.

In 1981, his service was honoured as a CBE.

Following Balfour's retirement from politics in 1982, he was involved in the regional TAFE program and other community activities, particularly in the Latrobe Valley. He died in 1990.[1]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Parliament of Victoria . Parliament of Victoria . Balfour, James Charles Murray . re-member: a database of all Victorian MPs since 1851 . Parliament of Victoria . 2001 . 21 August 2015.