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.

Reactions

Reactions to the death sparked reflections on the nature of the Bjelke-Petersen era. Historian Ross Fitzgerald remarked

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"The fact that the man has died doesn't alter one iota the corruption and the viciousness of the regime that he ran. I get disappointed but not surprised that people rewrite him. I'm disappointed that Premier Beattie has written and is rewriting that Joh. Beattie more than anybody should know what a vicious and corrupt regime that Bjelke-Petersen ran and it's a shame that he cosseted up to him for the last few years of his life." http://www.abc.net.au/news/indepth/featureitems/s1348142.htm

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A Queensland journalist during the Joh era, Quentin Dempster, called Sir Joh "a walking breach of ministerial propriety", his government "deeply corrupt", and attacked the "cult of personality" surrounding him as "hypocritical". http://www.abc.net.au/news/indepth/featureitems/s1348134.htm. Both of them pointed to the irregularites surrounding his trial, with ten jurors endorsing the view that he had knowingly perjured himself, and suggested that the lack of a conviction was the result of political interference in the case. Civil libertarian Terry O'Gorman called him "the worst Premier in respect of civil liberties and human rights that this state has ever seen." http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200504/s1352338.htm Aboriginal activist Sam Watson said "Aboriginal people will always remember him as a racist, a thug and a dictator".

Related Topics:
Journalist - Terry O'Gorman - Aboriginal

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Peter Beattie made mention of the important role his predecessor had in state development and said "personally, I always got on with him very well. In a personal sense, he was warm and charming and was hard not to like". He said "If you look at the total equation, when you take the negatives and the positives, he did a lot of good for the state". http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,15075996-2,00.html

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Conservative supporters focused on his legacy of state development. National Party Senator Ron Boswell praised Bjelke-Petersen as "a champion of Queensland (. . .) a humble man that had simple ways of assessing things - was it good or was it bad, was it right or was it wrong." http://www.abc.net.au/insiders/content/2005/s1352268.htm John Howard played down the bitterness associated with the Joh for Canberra campaign and said that he was "certainly a strong political figure". http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,15069792-28217,00.html Lawrence Springborg, his successor as National Party leader, said Bjelke-Petersen was "the architect of modern Queensland". Former Bjelke-Petersen staffer and state director of the National Party, Ken Crooke, called him a "servant of the people" and a "gentleman" who was beloved by "ordinary folk". http://www.abc.net.au/news/indepth/featureitems/s1302916.htm

Related Topics:
Ron Boswell - John Howard - Joh for Canberra - Lawrence Springborg

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The Queensland Government has plans to construct a memorial, possibly a statue of Sir Joh in Kingaroyhttp://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200504/s1353160.htm.

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