Joh Bjelke-Petersen

Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen KCMG
File:JBPetersen.jpg
31st Premier of Queensland
In office 8 August 1968 – 1 December 1987
Preceded by	Gordon Chalk
Succeeded by	Mike Ahern
Personal details
Born	(1911-01-13)January 13, 1911 Dannevirke, New Zealand
Died	April 23, 2005(2005-04-23) (aged 94) Kingaroy, Queensland, Australia
Political party	Country/National Party of Australia
Spouse	Flo Bjelke-Petersen

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.

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 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. Obtaining a pilot's licence early in his adult life, Joh also started aerial spraying and grass seeding to further speed up pasture development in Queensland. By the time he entered Parliament, he had built a thriving business.

Under sponsorship from Sir Charles Adermann and Sir Francis 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 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 electoral districts had significantly less enrolled voters than those in metropolitan areas. This system was originally introduced by the Labor Party in 1949 as an overt electoral fix. 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", a play on the term "gerrymander". Although Bjelke-Petersen's 1972 redistributions occasionally had elements of "gerrymandering" in the strict sense, their perceived unfairness had more to do with malapportionment whereby certain areas (normally rural) are simply granted more representation than their population would dictate if electorates contained equal numbers of voters (or population). The lack of a state upper house (since its abolition in 1922) allowed executive decisions to be swiftly implemented, yet also meant there were no "checks and balances" applied to the decisions of the lower house.

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).

Queensland under Bjelke-Petersen

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 lasted for three decades.

The development boom was particularly noticeable in the tourist area of the Gold Coast. The Bjelke-Petersen government worked closely with property developers, who constructed resorts, hotels, a casino and a system of residential developments built beside canals dredged through wetlands on the Gold Coast.

In one controversial case, the Queensland government passed special legislation, the Sanctuary Cove Act, in 1985, to exempt a luxury development, Sanctuary Cove, from local government planning regulations. The developer, Mike Gore, was seen as a key member of the "white shoe brigade', a group of Gold Coast businessmen who became influential supporters of Bjelke Petersen. Gore established Queensland's first gated community at Sanctuary Cove, to exclude unemployed and others who he described as "cockroaches". Gore was a vocal backer of the "Joh for PM" campaign. Bjelke Petersen denied that had received any money from Gore.

Interior of Cloudland Dance Hall

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, and the Captain Cook, Gateway and Merivale bridges were all constructed, as well as the Parliamentary Annexe that was attached to Queensland Parliament House. Despite public protests, Brisbane heritage sites, such as the Bellevue Hotel and the Cloudland dance hall, were re-developed with the demolition contracted to the Deen Brothers. Former Liberal Parliamentarian, Terry Gygar, described the early morning scene at the Bellevue demolition; "A large crowd had gathered around the building. There was a cordon of police. They had thrown up a barbed...a mesh wire fence around it. And then the Deen Bros arrived, rolling through like an armoured division, straight through the crowd. People were knocked sideways. Police were dragging people out of the way. Parking meters were knocked over. Traffic signs were bent and twisted on the road. It looked like Stalingrad."

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".

His Government dominated Parliament, not allowing committees or impartial speech, and ran a very sophisticated media operation, sending press releases out right on deadline so journalists had very little chance to research news items.

Journalists covering industrial disputes and picketing, were afraid of arrest. In 1985, the Australian Journalists Association withdrew from the system of police passes because of police refusal to accredit certain journalists. Some journalists experienced police harassment.

A number of times Bjelke Petersen responded to unfavourable media coverage by using government resources to sue for defamation. Queensland historian, Ross Fitzgerald was threatened with criminal libel when he sought to publish a critical history.

In 1989, the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal, found that in 1986 Bjelke-Petersen had placed then Channel 9 owner Alan Bond in a position of 'commercial blackmail' when Bond improperly agreed to pay $400,000 as an out-of-court defamation settlement.

Joh's catchphrase answer to unwelcome queries, "Don't you worry about that," was widely parodied.

Civil liberties and political protest

The Bjelke-Petersen government sought to make political capital with its hardline approach against protest and industrial action. Police violence was witnessed 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. Leading Queensland poet, Judith Wright, returned her own honorary Doctorate, in a personal protest.

The 1971 Springbok tour by the South Africa national rugby union team sparked nation-wide demonstrations by supporters of the still imprisoned black African leader, Nelson Mandela. Bjelke-Petersen declared a state of emergency to suppress public protests. Doug Anthony, a former National Party Deputy Prime Minister, said Bjelke-Petersen's support for South Africa's apartheid regime, in direct defiance of the Fraser Government's stance, showed him as "unreasonable, selfish and un-Christian". According to Don Lane, one of Bjelke Petersen's closest ministerial allies, Joh saw street marchers as a menace who clogged up traffic, caused distress to pedestrians, motorists and shop keepers and were mainly made up of grubby left wing students, Anarchists, professional agitators and trade union activists. The government transferred 450 police from country areas to suppress demonstrations. Future Queensland Premier Peter Beattie, then a student protestor, witnessed police violently attacking peaceful demonstrators, including women. Brisbane aboriginal activist, Sam Watson claimed the police wanted to "smash and cripple and destroy". Bjelke-Petersen praised police conduct during the demonstrations and awarded them an extra day's leave.

Bjelke-Petersen cultivated a close relationship with factions within 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.

Extensive Special Branch monitoring (including telephone tapping) of suspected subversives was routine; among its targets were not only student activists, unionists and Labor Party parliamentarians, but also coalition figures who had incurred Bjelke-Petersen's displeasure. Peter Beattie said that, "...if you went to a protest there was always photos being taken". "You know, you'd always pose to get your best side. (Laughs) And they had a dossier on everybody," Beattie said. Following the Springbok tour, Don Lane, a former member of the Special Branch, was elected to parliament, campaigning for Law and Order.

In 1977, Bjelke Petersen decided to ban street marches altogether. Seven Liberal parliamentarians crossed the floor defending the right of association and assembly. One of the Liberals, Colin Lamont, told a meeting at University of Queensland that the Premier was engineering confrontation for electoral purposes."Two hours later, he (Bjelke Petersen) lunged at me across the floor of Parliament, waving a tape recorder and spluttered, 'I’ve heard every word. You are a traitor to this Government'," Lamont wrote later. Lamont said he learned the Special Branch had been keeping files on Liberal rebels and reporting, not to their Commissioner, but directly to the Premier. "The police state had arrived*," Lamont said.

The Uniting Church synod passed a resolution requesting "Queensland heads of churches to mediate between the State government and student and civil liberties groups to achieve better ways of expressing their differences." Sir Joh replied, "If churches want to consort with atheists and communists dedicated to the elimination of religion, that is their problem."

Bjelke-Petersen often accused political opponents of being covert communists bent on anarchy. "I have always found ... you can campaign on anything you like but nothing is more effective than communism," he said. "If he's a Labor man, he's a socialist and a very dangerous man." His rhetoric may have been ridiculed in the national media but it proved highly effective among conservative and rural voters who enjoyed disproportionate political influence due to malapportionment.

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." . 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.

Also in 1976, Bjelke Petersen evicted a team treating trachoma, led by Fred Hollows from state controlled aboriginal land. Bjelke Petersen claimed that Hollows' team had been encouraging aborigines to enroll to vote. In his visits to northern communities, Fred Hollows was accompanied by two respected Aboriginal spokesmen and civil rights activists, Mick Miller and Clarrie Groggan. With an election looming, and keen to shut down this source of independent information, the Premier simply ejected Hollows' team. Electoral office data refuting his claims that there had been a rush of voter enrolments in the wake of the trachoma team, was not released for public consumption.

In 1978, the newly-formed Uniting Church became involved in a struggle between the rights of Aborigines at Aurukun and Mornington Island (former Presbyterian missions) and the Queensland Government, which was anxious to allow mining to proceed. Bjelke-Petersen granted a 1,900 square kilometre mining lease to a mining consortium under extremely favourable conditions. With support from the church, the Aurukun people challenged the legislation, eventually winning their case in the Queensland Supreme Court. But they ultimately lost it when the Queensland Government appealed to the Privy Council in England.

Cheryl Buchanan, chairwoman of the Kooma Traditional Owners Association said it was difficult now for people to accept how different things were in Queensland for Aboriginal people in the 1960s and 1970s."We got raped by police in those days and couldn't do anything about it. They were the SS. The police would pick us up on a regular basis because they knew who we all were, and they'd take us out the back of Samford and harass us and push us around for hours," Buchanon said.

Aboriginal activist Sam Watson said: "Aboriginal people will always remember him [Bjelke Petersen] as a racist, a thug and a dictator."

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 Bertie Milliner 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.

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, on the recommendation of his own government, 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 Johannes"), 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.

Downfall

"Joh for Canberra"

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".

Fitzgerald Inquiry

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, Deputy Premier and Minister of Police Bill Gunn, who was serving as acting premier in Bjelke-Petersen's absence, 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 Terry Lewis, but also senior members and associates of the Bjelke-Petersen government. As a result of the inquiry, Lewis was tried, convicted, and jailed on corruption charges. He was later stripped of his knighthood and other honours. A number of other officials, including ministers Don 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.

Ouster

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's 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. Bjelke-Petersen resigned on 1 December 1987 after spending time in his office destroying incriminating papers.

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.

Perjury trial

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). Evidence was given to the perjury trial by Sir Joh's former police Special Branch bodyguard Sergeant Bob Carter that in 1986 he had twice been given packages of cash totalling $210,000 at Sir Joh's office. He was told to take them to a Brisbane city law firm and then watch as the money was deposited in a company bank account. The money had been given over by developer Sng Swee Lee, and the bank account was in the name of Kaldeal - operated by a trustee of the National Party, Edward Lyons. John Huey, a Fitzgerald Inquiry Investigator later told Four Corners: "I said to Robert Sng, "Well what did Sir Joh say to you when you gave him this large sum of money?" And he said, "All he said was, 'thank you, thank you, thank you'."

The jury in the case remained deadlocked. In 1992 it was revealed that the jury foreman, Luke Shaw, was a member of the Young Nationals and was identified with the "Friends of Joh" movement.

A special prosecutor announced in 1992 there would be no retrial because Sir Joh, then aged 81, was too old.

Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen escaped conviction (the issue of prison would have been determined by a sentencing Judge if he had been found guilty) and the possible loss of his knighthood because his trial was aborted and the Prosecution were unable to obtain a guilty verdict. A key witness, Sng Swee Lee refused to return from Singapore for a retrial. However, one unproven estimate of Bjelke-Petersen's extortions was at least AU$6 million.

In 2003, The Queensland government rejected a $353 million damages claim by Sir Joh Bjelke Petersen seeking compensation for loss of business opportunities resulting from the Fitzgerald inquiry. In his advice to the government, tabled in parliament, Crown Solicitor Conrad Lohe not only recommended dismissing the claim, but said Sir Joh was "fortunate" not to have faced a second trial..

Post-premiership

Despite the proven corruption of the Bjelke-Petersen government, Bjelke-Petersen remained a popular figure with rural conservatives in 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's memoirs, Don't You Worry About That: The Joh Bjelke-Petersen Memoirs, were published in 1991.

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. Australian Prime Minister John Howard was a speaker at the funeral of Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen.

References

• Deane Wells, The Deep North (1979) (Outback Press)

• Evan Whitton, "The Hillbilly Dictator", Australian Broadcasting Commission, 1989, ISBN 0 642 12809 X