Joh Bjelke-Petersen

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Sir Johannes "Joh" Bjelke-Petersen KCMG, (13 January 1911 – 23 April 2005), New Zealand-born Australian politician, was the longest-serving and longest-lived Premier of the state of Queensland. He held office from 1968 to 1987, a period that saw considerable economic development in the state. His uncompromising conservatism (including his role within the downfall of the Whitlam federal government), his political longevity, and his leadership of a government that, in its latter years, was revealed to be institutionally corrupt, made him one of the best-known political figures in twentieth-century Australia.

1 Early life
2 Rise to power
3 Queensland under Bjelke-Petersen
4 Downfall
5 Post-premiership
6 Bjelke-Petersen in popular culture
7 References

[edit] Early life

Bjelke-Petersen was born in Dannevirke in the Southern Hawke's Bay region of New Zealand, and lived in Waipukurau, a small town in Hawke's Bay. Bjelke-Petersen's parents were both Danish immigrants, and his father, Carl, was a Lutheran pastor. In 1913 the family left for Australia, moving to Kingaroy in south-eastern Queensland and taking up dairy farming.

The young Johannes suffered from polio, leaving him with a life-long limp. The family was poor, and Carl Bjelke-Petersen was frequently in poor health. Johannes and his mother Maren worked on the farm. Imbued with the strongly pietistic Lutheranism associated with the Danish immigrants of the area, Johannes was somewhat resentful of both his father and elder brother, whose sickliness and academic leanings meant that they left much of the work to him. Biographer James Walter has suggested that this resentment would feed Johannes' anti-intellectual tendencies in later life.

In 1933, Bjelke-Petersen began work on the family's newly-acquired second property at land-clearing and peanut farming. His efforts eventually allowed him to begin work as a contract land-clearer (using a tax deduction then allowable to primary producers), and to acquire further capital which he invested in farm equipment and natural resource exploration. He developed a technique for quickly clearing scrub by connecting a heavy anchor chain between two bulldozers. By the time he entered Parliament, he had built a thriving business.

Under sponsorship from Charles Adermann and Sir Frank Nicklin, he was elected as Country Party member for Nanango in the Queensland Legislative Assembly in 1946 (from 1950 to 1987 he was member for Barambah). The Australian Labor Party (ALP) had held power in Queensland since 1932 and Bjelke-Petersen spent eleven years as an Opposition member.

[edit] Rise to power

In 1957, following a split in the Labor Party, the Country Party under Nicklin came to power, with the Liberal Party as a junior coalition partner. In the same year, Bjelke-Petersen married Florence Gilmour, who was later to become a significant political figure in her own right. Bjelke-Petersen became one of Nicklin's cabinet ministers in 1963 and held office until 1968; Nicklin retired in January of that year. Jack Pizzey, Nicklin's successor both as Premier and as Country Party leader, died unexpectedly within seven months of assuming office. In the election for leadership of the Country Party, Bjelke-Petersen won. He became Premier on 8 August 1968. (During the interval between Pizzey's death and Bjelke-Petersen's accession, the premiership was held by the Liberals' leader, Sir Gordon Chalk.) At this stage Bjelke-Petersen was still not very well known even to most Queenslanders, let alone outside the State.

Bjelke-Petersen's administration was kept in power by an electoral malapportionment where rural votes were given greater power than those in city areas. This system was originally introduced by the Labor Party in 1949 as an overt gerrymander. Under Nicklin the bias in favour of rural constituencies was maintained. In 1972 Sir Joh strengthened the system to favour his own party, which led to his opponents referring to it as the "Bjelke-mander". The lack of a state upper house (since its abolition in 1922) allowed executive decisions to be swiftly implemented.

With Labor weak and chronically divided in Queensland throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Bjelke-Petersen won a series of election victories, often at the expense of his Liberal coalition partners as much as Labor. Typically the Country Party would gain fewer votes than either Labor or Liberal, but those votes would be spread out across the many rural electorates, giving the Country Party more seats than the Liberals and thus making them the senior coalition partner. Together they had more seats in Parliament than Labor, allowing Bjelke-Petersen to govern as Premier of a State in which his party received only 20% of the votes (using the figures for the 1972 election).

[edit] Queensland under Bjelke-Petersen

[edit] State development

Bjelke-Petersen abolished state duties on deceased estates (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 vigorously encouraged in a heady entrepreneurial environment. Environmental restrictions on planning were virtually unknown and high-rise apartment blocks flourished in the once sleepy seaside towns. 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 a system of residential developments built beside canals dredged through wetlands on the Gold Coast.

Considerable 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 Bellevue Hotel and the Cloudland dance hall, were subject to demolition by the Deen Brothers demolition company, in the early hours of the morning, to make way for new developments.

[edit] Relations with the media

Bjelke-Petersen was remarkably successful at controlling 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, such as Alan Bond, to settle out of court. His catchphrase answer to intrusive queries, "Don't you worry about that," was widely parodied.

[edit] 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-Bjelke-Petersen sentiment. A decision by this University's Senate to award him an honorary doctorate of laws brought about criticisms from both students and staff^{[citation needed]}.

The 1971 Springbok tour by the South Africa national rugby union team, associated with the apartheid regime, attracted nationwide, sometimes violent, protests. Those protests in Queensland spurred the Bjelke-Petersen government to declare a state of emergency. Six years later the government changed the law, severely restricting street demonstrations, which led to further violent protest.

Extensive Special Branch monitoring (including telephone tapping) of suspected subversives was routine; among its targets were 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 was ridiculed in the national media but was highly effective among conservative and rural voters.

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.

[edit] 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." ^[1]. 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.

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.

[edit] 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, Bjelke". 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.

In 1974, Whitlam had approached former Queensland Premier and then 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 five, rather than six, vacancies, denying Labor the chance of gaining Gair's Senate spot.

The convention in filling Senate vacancies since 1949 had been that the State Parliament would appoint 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, and instead asked for a short list of three nominees, from which he would pick one. When the ALP refused to supply such a list, Bjelke-Petersen appointed Albert Field, an ALP member who was critical of the Whitlam government. The ALP tried to block the appointment by expelling Field, and announcing that it would expel anyone else who would accept the appointment in Colston's place, but Bjelke-Petersen went ahead with the appointment anyway.

Field's appointment was the subject of a High Court challenge and he took leave in late 1975. During this period, the Coalition led by Malcolm Fraser refused to allot a pair to balance Field's absence. This gave the Coalition control over the Senate. Fraser used this control to prevent passage of the Supply Bills through Parliament, denying Whitlam's then-unpopular government the legal capacity to appropriate funds for government business and leading to his dismissal as Prime Minister.

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 these allegations remained unsubstantiated.

[edit] 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, Dr 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.

In 1984 Bjelke-Petersen was created a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George, for "services to parliamentary democracy". He was then generally known as "Sir Joh" (rather than "Sir Johannnes"), and his wife generally (if incorrectly) known as "Lady Flo."

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 Bjelke-Petersen on the basis of the need to secure continued power supplies. The strike was eventually defeated, causing a great deal of bitterness among unionists.

[edit] Downfall

In 1987 Bjelke-Petersen made an extraordinary political move, launching a campaign for the Prime Ministership, working against the Nationals' usual coalition partner, the Liberal Party (under the leadership of John Howard). The "Joh for Canberra" campaign, abandoned after it became clear that there was no prospect of success, was a significant factor in the victory of incumbent Labor Prime Minister, Bob Hawke. The State Secretary of the Labor Party (and later Queensland Premier), Peter Beattie remarked "we couldn't have done it without Joh".

Also in 1987, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation investigative journalism program Four Corners aired an episode entitled "The Moonlight State" alleging high-level corruption in the Queensland Police, including the receipt of bribes from owners of illegal brothels. At the time the program aired, Bjelke-Petersen was involved in his aborted national political campaign and was outside Queensland.

In response to these allegations, Acting Premier Bill Gunn announced an inquiry. It was clear that Bjelke-Petersen had always opposed any inquiry into the Queensland Police, and his biographers have asserted that had he not been out of the state, this inquiry would never have been held.

The two-year-long Commission of Inquiry into "Possible Illegal Activities and Associated Police Misconduct" was chaired by barrister Tony Fitzgerald and known as the Fitzgerald Inquiry. As it began, evidence of corruption was unearthed implicating not only Police Commissioner Lewis, but also senior members and associates of the Bjelke-Petersen government. As a result of the inquiry, Lewis was stripped of his knighthood, tried, convicted, and jailed on corruption charges. A number of other officials, including ministers Lane and Austin were also jailed. Another former minister, Russ Hinze, died while awaiting trial.

Bjelke-Petersen gave evidence before the Inquiry himself, denying all knowledge of any wrongdoing. His standing was damaged, however, by his inability to account for large sums of cash in his office safe and when he demonstrated his ignorance of the separation of powers, a basic principle of accountable government.

The Bjelke-Petersen government's decline in political standing prompted fierce conflict between his supporters and his detractors within the Nationals' partyroom. Sir Robert Sparkes, the State Secretary of the party, who for decades had been Bjelke-Petersen's influential sponsor, withdrew his support and the two became enemies. When in late 1987 Bjelke-Petersen announced government support for construction of the "world's tallest building" in Brisbane, a pet project of a member of the "white shoe brigade", a number of ministers strongly protested. Bjelke-Petersen then met with State Governor Sir Walter Campbell in an effort to restructure his Cabinet and purge dissenters from the ministry. After a period of negotiation, Sir Walter agreed to sack three ministers.

Bjelke-Petersen denied his National Party opponents the opportunity to confront him by refusing to call a meeting of the party's parliamentarians. Eventually, the organisational wing of the party intervened and called one. Bjelke-Petersen request that Nationals MPs join him in a boycott went unheeded, and the meeting deposed him as National Party leader and elected in his place Mike Ahern, one of the ministers he had sacked.

Bjelke-Petersen refused to resign as Premier. The stand-off was resolved after a period of negotiation, when Bjelke-Petersen resigned as Premier and from Parliament. In the subsequent by-election for his seat, he ensured that a radical right-wing independent rather than the Nationals' endorsed candidate was successful. He worked openly to destabilise the Nationals' leadership, and at the next election Labor returned to office after 32 years in opposition.

In 1991 Bjelke-Petersen faced criminal trial for perjury arising out of the evidence he had given to the Fitzgerald Inquiry (an earlier proposed charge of corruption was incorporated into the perjury charge). The jury in the case remained deadlocked and failed to reach a unanimous verdict. In 1992 it was revealed that the jury foreman was a member of the National Party, but the Director of Public Prosecutions elected not to proceed with a second trial.^[2]

[edit] Post-premiership

In 2003, Bjelke-Petersen re-appeared in the public spotlight when he filed a lawsuit seeking $338 million in damages as a result of lost superannuation and harm to his business interests allegedly caused by the Fitzgerald Inquiry.

Despite the proven corruption of the Bjelke-Petersen government, Bjelke-Petersen remained a popular figure in parts of Queensland. Peter Beattie recognised his standing by appearing in photographs with him, extending government courtesies to him, and refraining from criticism. Bjelke-Petersen in turn praised his successor's good manners.

Bjelke-Petersen died in April 2005, with Lady Bjelke-Petersen and a number of other family members by his side. Bjelke-Petersen received a state funeral and is buried at his property "Bethany" at Kingaroy.

[edit] Bjelke-Petersen in popular culture

British rock group The Stranglers' 1979 song "Nuclear Device (The Wizard of Aus)", from the album The Raven, depicts Bjelke-Petersen as "the wizard of Aus" who doesn't "really care which way you vote, 'Cos my gerrymander works out fine".^[3] His photo was originally included in the inner sleeve artwork, but the band was forced to remove it.

Bjelke-Petersen was lampooned by the Skyhooks in "Over the Border" (single, 1979), and by Redgum in "Letter to BJ" (If You Don't Fight You Lose, 1978).