Joh Bjelke-Petersen

The Honourable Sir Johannes Bjelke-Petersen, KCMG (13 January, 1911 - 23 April 2005) was an Australian politician who was Premier of the state of Queensland from 1968 to 1987, the state's longest serving Premier. His populist and authoritarian style made an indelible impact both within Queensland and elsewhere within Australia.

Queensland under Joh

State development

Bjelke-Petersen abolished state death duties (inheritance taxes), leading to a steady flow of retired people moving from the southern states of Victoria and New South Wales to Queensland, particularly the Gold Coast. All other Australian states and territories had abolished this tax by 1981 in attempt to stem the flow of people to Queensland. The rapid rise in population in the Gold Coast, Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast led to a building boom that has lasted for three decades. The development boom was particularly noticeable in the tourist area of the Gold Coast, where developers were able to operate with no requirement to consider the environmental impact. The Bjelke-Petersen government worked closely with a clique of influential property developers, known derisively as "the white shoe brigade", to construct resorts, hotels, a casino and even a system of residential developments built beside canals dredged through wetlands on the Gold Coast.

Related Topics:
Inheritance tax - Victoria - New South Wales - Queensland - Gold Coast - 1981 - Sunshine Coast - Gold Coast - Canal

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Development of the state's infrastructure took place during the Bjelke-Petersen era. Airports, coal mines, power stations, and dams were built throughout the state. James Cook University was established. In Brisbane, the Queensland Cultural Centre, Griffith University, the South-East Freeway, the Captain Cook and Merivale bridges were all constructed, as well as the Executive Annexe to Queensland Parliament House. Brisbane landmarks such as the Bellvue Hotel and the Cloudland dance hall were subject to midnight demolition by the Deen Brothers demolition company to make way for new developments.

Related Topics:
Infrastructure - Airport - Coal mine - Dam - James Cook University - Brisbane - Queensland Cultural Centre - Griffith University - Captain Cook - Merivale

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Relations with the media

Bjelke-Peterson was remarkably successful at manipulating media coverage, using paid-for advertorials on commercial networks and fobbing off journalists with irrelevant non-answers in a performance he called "feeding the chooks". A number of times he responded to unfavourable media coverage by suing for defamation, action which would precipitate the defendants to settle out of court. His catchphrase answer to intrusive queries, "Don't you worry about that" was widely parodied.

Related Topics:
Advertorial - Defamation

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Civil liberties and political protest

The Bjelke-Petersen government was vigorously opposed in left-wing and civil libertarian circles for its hardline approach to political protest and industrial action. Police violence was alleged against demonstrators at the University of Queensland, which was a haven for anti-Joh sentiment. The University Senate's decision to award him an honourary doctorate of laws brought about criticisms from both students and staff.

Related Topics:
Civil libertarian - University of Queensland - Doctorate of laws

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The tour of the South Africa national rugby union team, associated with the apartheid regime, in Australia in 1971 attracted nationwide, sometimes violent, protests. Those in Queensland spurred the Bjelke-Petersen government to declare a state of emergency. In 1977 the government went so far as to ban street demonstrations altogether, leading to further violent protest.

Related Topics:
South Africa national rugby union team - Apartheid - 1971 - State of emergency - 1977

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Extensive Special Branch monitoring (including telephone tapping) of suspected subversives was routine, including not only Labor Party parliamentarians, but also National Party figures who had incurred Bjelke-Petersen's displeasure. Bjelke-Petersen regularly accused political opponents of being covert communists bent on anarchy. His rhetoric and charisma rated highly among conservative and rural voters.

Related Topics:
Telephone tapping - Communist - Conservative - Rural

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Bjelke-Petersen cultivated a close relationship with the police service, often at the expense of the relevant Minister for Police. In 1976, after attempting to initiate inquiries into police violence and reform the police force, Police Commissioner Ray Whitrod resigned, alleging interference by Bjelke-Petersen with his position. Bjelke-Petersen had him replaced as Commissioner by the relatively junior Terry Lewis, who worked closely and directly with Bjelke-Petersen on a wide variety of matters, and who would later be revealed to be corrupt by the Fitzgerald Inquiry.

Related Topics:
Ray Whitrod - Terry Lewis - Fitzgerald Inquiry

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Aboriginal people

In June 1976, Bjelke-Petersen blocked the proposed sale of a pastoral property on the Cape York Peninsula to a group of Aboriginal people, because according to cabinet policy, "The Queensland Government does not view favourably proposals to acquire large areas of additional freehold or leasehold land for development by Aborigines or Aboriginal groups in isolation." {{ref|land_policy}}. This dispute resulted in the case of Koowarta v Bjelke-Petersen, which was decided partly in the High Court in 1982, and partly in the Supreme Court of Queensland in 1988. The courts found that Bjelke-Petersen's policy had discriminated against Aboriginal people.

Related Topics:
1976 - Cape York Peninsula - Aboriginal - Koowarta v Bjelke-Petersen - High Court - 1982 - Supreme Court of Queensland - 1988

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During the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane, thousands of protesters demonstrated in the streets of Brisbane, to protest against Queensland's treatment of Aboriginal Australians. Police arrested 224 protesters for breaching the "permit" system, by which protest marches had to have a permit to exclusively use public thoroughfares. At one point, there were not enough police cells to hold all the prisoners, and some of them were kept in police vans on the street for several hours.

Related Topics:
1982 Commonwealth Games - Brisbane

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Role in the Whitlam Dismissal

In 1975 Bjelke-Petersen played what later turned out to be a key role in the political crisis which brought down the federal Labor government of Gough Whitlam, who referred to Bjelke-Petersen as "that Bible-bashing bastard from Queensland." Whitlam's government did not have control of the Senate, whose members are elected as representatives of the individual states. Senators are normally elected directly, but if a Senate position becomes vacant, a replacement is appointed by the relevant State Governor. State Governors are also responsible for the issue of writs for elections to the Senate. Bjelke-Petersen twice used these practices to thwart Whitlam's attempts to gain control of the Senate.

Related Topics:
1975 - The political crisis - Gough Whitlam - Senate - States - State Governor - Writs

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In 1974, Whitlam had approached former Queensland Premier and now Senator for the Democratic Labor Party, Vince Gair, with the offer as a job as ambassador to Ireland as a way of creating an extra vacant Senate position in Queensland that Whitlam hoped would be won by his Labor Party. When this arrangement became public, Bjelke-Petersen advised the Governor Sir Colin Hannah, to issue writs for three, rather than four, vacancies, denying the government an opportunity to gain Gair's Senate spot. The government remained without Senate control after the 1974 election.

Related Topics:
1974 - Democratic Labor Party - Vince Gair - Ambassador - Ireland - Sir Colin Hannah

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The convention in filling Senate vacancies was that the State government would automatically accept the nominee of the former Senator's political party. When Labor Senator Bert Miliner died, Bjelke-Petersen rejected Labor's nominee to fill the vacancy, Mal Colston, in favour of Albert Patrick Field, a nominal member of the Labor Party but totally unsympathetic to Whitlam. The appointment was so controversial that most Labor Senators boycotted Field's swearing-in. Field's appointment was the subject of a High Court challenge and he took leave in late 1975, giving the Coalition led by Malcolm Fraser control over the Senate. Fraser delayed the passage of the Supply Bills through Parliament, leaving Whitlam's Government running out of legally appropriated funds and leading to his dismissal as Prime Minister. Subsequently, in 1977, the convention of Senate appointments was inserted into the Constitution.

Related Topics:
Bert Miliner - Mal Colston - Malcolm Fraser - 1977 - Constitution

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During the tumultuous election campaign precipitated by Whitlam's dismissal by Sir John Kerr, Bjelke-Petersen alleged that Queensland police investigations had uncovered damaging documentation in relation to the Loans Affair. This documentation was never made public and the allegations remained unsubstantiated.

Related Topics:
Sir John Kerr - Loans Affair

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Break-up of the Coalition

In 1975, facing the declining population of its rural base, the Country Party changed its name to the National Country Party (later the National Party) and began contesting metropolitan seats against its coalition partner, the Liberals. In August 1983 Terry White, a Liberal minister, joined backbench colleagues crossing the floor to vote against the government in Parliament. The Liberal leader, Sir Llew Edwards, asked White to resign as a Minister but instead White successfully challenged him for leadership of the Liberal Party. Bjelke-Petersen refused to work with White as Deputy Premier and as a result the coalition agreement was broken off. At the 1983 state election, the intensely divided Liberals suffered a heavy loss of seats and after the defection of two Liberals, Don Lane and Brian Austin, the Nationals gained a majority in their own right.

Related Topics:
1975 - August - 1983 - Terry White - Crossing the floor - Sir Llew Edwards - Don Lane - Brian Austin

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In 1984 Bjelke-Petersen was created a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George, for "services to parliamentary democracy".

Related Topics:
1984 - Knight - Order of St Michael and St George

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In 1985 a protracted industrial dispute with state-employed (SEQEB) electricity workers over superannuation entitlements resulted in a strike and the government's introduction of severe anti-striking legislation, justified by Sir Joh on the basis of the need to secure continued power supplies. The strike eventually folded but not without a great deal of residual bitterness among unionists. The sacked workers, members of the Electrical Trades Union protested the fact Bjelke-Petersen received a State Funeral, some twenty years after the dispute, emphasising this bitterness.

Related Topics:
1985 - Superannuation - Strike - Electrical Trades Union

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