Johannes Bjelke-Petersen

Sir Johannes Bjelke-Petersen

Sir John "John" Bjelke-Petersen KCMG (* 13. January 1911 in Dannevirke , New Zealand ; † 23. April 2005 in Kingaroy , Queensland , Australia ) was an Australian politician of the Country Party and long-time Prime Minister of Queensland .

Life

Bjelke-Petersen, son of a pastor of the Lutheran Church who immigrated from Denmark , began his political career in the "Country Party", later renamed the "National Party of Australia", in 1946 when he was elected a member of the then Kingaroy Shire Council . In 1949 he was first elected a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly.

In 1963 he was appointed to the Queensland government by Prime Minister Francis Nicklin for the first time and was Minister for Public Works and Housing until 1968.

After the unexpected death of Nicklin's successor Jack Pizzey , he finally became Prime Minister of Queensland himself on August 8, 1968 and closed the gap created by Pizzey's death over the next few years.

The press liked to portray him as a biblical , anti- union and right-wing peanut farmer who was ready to use his name for even more absurd projects. In fact, he was not someone who observed the principles of ministerial responsibilities or the separation of powers , and who treated journalists and critics with slogans such as “Don't you worry about that”. On the other hand, however, he was a power politician in the Machiavellian style, who was easily underestimated by political opponents, but also by party friends.

Joh Bjelke-Petersen (left) with Russ Hinze , the so-called "Minister for Everything" during Bjelke-Petersen's term of office (1989)

In November 1975 he helped overthrow the government of Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam by breaking the agreement to elect Whitlam opponent Albert Patrick Field for a vacant seat in the Australian Senate due to the Australian Labor Party . As a result, the opposition had enough representatives to prevent Whitlam's support and ultimately usher in the election of Malcolm Fraser as Australia's new Prime Minister.

After his second victory in the Queensland Legislative Assembly, he saw increasing protests from militant trade unionists and left-wing students . In one of the largest of these demonstrations , 662 demonstrators were arrested in October 1977.

Most recently, during his tenure from 1983 to 1987, he was also Treasurer . In 1984 Johannes Bjelke-Petersen was promoted to the nobility as Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George and from then on bore the name suffix "Sir".

After an unsuccessful renewed candidacy for prime minister, which ultimately brought the opposition Labor Party advantages in the elections to the legislative assembly, he resigned on December 1, 1987 due to growing allegations of corruption and wrong decisions and was replaced by Mike Ahern .

Web links and sources

• Biography (rulers.org)