Joh Bjelke-Petersen
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Sir Johannes Bjelke-Petersen, (13 January 1911 – 23 April 2005), New Zealand-born Australian politician, was the longest-serving Premier of the state of Queensland, holding office from 1968 to 1987, a period that saw considerable economic development in the state. He became nationally well-known thanks to his uncompromising conservatism (including his role within the downfall of the Whitlam federal government), his political longevity and a government that, in its latter years, was revealed to be institutionally corrupt.
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Early life
Bjelke-Petersen was born in Dannevirke in the Manawatu 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, Joh 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, (exploiting a tax deduction then allowable to primary producers) and to acquire further capital which he invested in farm equipment and natural resource exploration. Joh 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 and was a successful and trusted entrepreneur.
Under sponsorship from Charles Adermann and 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.
Rise to power
In 1957, following a split in the Labor Party, the Country Party came to power, with the Liberal Party as a junior coalition partner. In the same year, Bjelke-Petersen married Florence Gilmour, who would later be known as "Lady Flo" and a political figure in her own right. Bjelke-Petersen became a minister under Nicklin in 1963 and held office through until 1968, when he was a surprise victor in the election for leadership of the Country Party following Nicklin's death. He became Premier on 8 August 1968.
Bjelke-Petersen's government was kept in power by an electoral malapportionment heavily favouring votes in country areas. This was known as the "Bjelke-mander" but it in fact was a more democratic refinement of a system that was introduced by the Labor Party in 1949. 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 '70s, 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 he had received only 20% of the votes (using the figures for the 1972 election).
Queensland under Joh
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 even 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 Bellvue Hotel and the Cloudland dance hall, were subject to demolition by the Deen Brothers demolition company (in the early hours of the morning, to avoid both environmental and heritage regulations and protestors) to make way for new developments.
Relations with the media
Bjelke-Peterson 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. He frequently made use of paid advertorial time to speak directly to his electorate.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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." Template:Ref. 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.
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 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.
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, 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. The appointment was so controversial that 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. 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 government the legal capacity to appropriate funds for government business and leading to his dismissal as Prime Minister. Subsequently, in 1977, the convention of Senate appointments whereby the state governor would automatically appoint the nominee of the former Senator's political party was inserted into the Constitution.
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.
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.
In 1984 Bjelke-Petersen was created a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George, for "services to parliamentary democracy".
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.
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 to the victory of incumbent Labor Prime Minister, Bob Hawke. State Secretary of the Labor Party, 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, Sir Joh was involved in his aborted national political campaign and was outside of 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 inaugurated.
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 the Police Commissioner, Sir Terry Lewis, a close confidante and hand-picked appointee of the Premier, but also senior members and associates of the Bjelke-Petersen government. As a result of the inquiry, Terry Lewis was stripped of his knighthood, tried, convicted, and gaoled on corruption charges. A number of other officials, including high level police officers and government ministers Don Lane and Brian Austin were also gaoled. Another former minister, Russ Hinze, known satirically as "Minister for Everything" due to the number of ministerial portfolios he held while in office, died while awaiting trial.
Bjelke-Petersen gave evidence before the Inquiry himself, denying all knowledge of any wrongdoing. Sir Joh's standing was damaged, however, by his inability to account for large sums of cash in his office safe and 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 Secretary of the Queensland Nationals, who for decades had been Sir Joh's influential sponsor, withdrew his support and the two became enemies. When in late 1987 Sir Joh 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. Sir Joh 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 on 24 November.
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 for 26 November. Sir Joh's request that Nationals MP's join him in a boycott went unheeded, and the meeting deposed Sir Joh 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 and sullenly retreated to his office on George Street. The stand-off was resolved after a period of negotiation on 1 December, when Bjelke-Petersen announced he had no interest in leading the Nationals anymore because they were not the party they once were, and 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, a result which several have attributed to the influence of the jury's foreman, Luke Shaw, a former member of the National Party. Amid the publicity surrounding the trial, the Director of Public Prosecutions elected not to proceed with a second trial.
Post-Premiership
The Special Prosecutor responsible decided not to reopen his perjury trial, on the basis of his advancing age, frail health, and the difficulty of a fair trial in the blaze of publicity surrounding not only the case but the original jury. Reaching his decision the prosecutor stated that "In such a case, the fact that the trial of such a person ended with a deadlocked jury would probably be accepted as a proper conclusion to the prosecution, because it could be seen as a reflection of the fact that there remains in the community people of strong views both for and against the accused." [1].
In 2003, Sir Joh 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, Joh remained a popular figure in parts of Queensland. Future Premiers of both political parties would sometimes be compared to Sir Joh, a comparison that was somewhat uncomfortable for National Rob Borbidge and indignantly denied by Labor's Wayne Goss and Peter Beattie. Beattie recognised Sir Joh's standing by appearing in photographs with him, extending government courtesies to him, and refraining from criticism. Sir Joh in turn praised his successor's good manners.
By early 2004 Sir Joh, aged 93, was reported to be in very poor physical health, being confined to a wheelchair and suffering from advanced Progressive Supranuclear Palsy. On 3 March 2004, his family said that he was on his deathbed and that they "were preparing for the worst". However, a year later, the bed-ridden Sir Joh reached his 94th birthday and was reported as having enjoyed himself by his wife, Lady Bjelke-Petersen. Worry about Sir Joh's health again rose about a month later when he was hospitalised suffering from breathing problems and his pneumonia, from which he successfully recovered.
Sir Joh was eventually pronounced dead at 6 pm AEST on 23 April 2005, with Lady Flo Bjelke-Petersen and a number of other family members by his side. Premier Peter Beattie announced that Bjelke-Petersen would receive a state funeral and the family announced plans to bury him on his property at Kingaroy.
Reactions
Reactions to the death sparked reflections on the nature of the Bjelke-Petersen era. Historian Ross Fitzgerald remarked
"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." [2]
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". [3]. 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." [4] Aboriginal activist Sam Watson said "Aboriginal people will always remember him as a racist, a thug and a dictator".
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". [5]
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." [6] John Howard played down the bitterness associated with the Joh for Canberra campaign and said that he was "certainly a strong political figure". [7] 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". [8]
Sir Joh's importance in Queensland history ensured he would be the subject of obituaries outside, as well as inside, Australia. Britain's Guardian newspaper published a predominantly hostile death notice [9], America's Chronicles magazine a predominantly sympathetic one [10].
The Queensland Government has plans to construct a memorial, possibly a statue of Sir Joh in Kingaroy[11].
References
- Deane Wells, The Deep North (1979) (Outback Press)
- Template:Note cabinet memo dated September 1972, quoted in Koowarta v Bjelke-Petersen.
- Template:Note 'The Hillbilly dictator' Evan Whitton (1989) p162-3 part transcript of courtcase
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