Joh Bjelke-Petersen

Bjelke-Petersen in 1968

Within months of becoming premier, Bjelke-Petersen encountered his first controversy over allegations of conflict of interest. In April 1959, while still a backbencher, he had paid £2 for an Authority to Prospect, giving him the right to search for oil over 150,000 km² near Hughenden in far north Queensland. The next month he incorporated a company, Artesian Basin Oil Co. Pty Ltd, of which he was sole director and shareholder, and the same day entered an agreement to sell 51% of the company's shares to an American company for £12,650. The following day he sought the consent of Mines Minister Ernie Evans to transfer the oil search authority to Artesian for £2; the consent was given a week later.

When the Taxation Commissioner ruled that the £12,650 windfall from the £2 authority was a taxable profit, Bjelke-Petersen appealed, eventually taking the matter to the High Court. The appeal was dismissed, with Justice Taylor ruling that Bjelke-Petersen's six million percent gain from the £2 authority arose from "a profit-making undertaking". In 1962 Artesian transferred its Authority to Prospect to a new company, Exoil NL, for £190,000, and Bjelke-Petersen in turn bought a million shares in Exoil.

On 1 September 1968, three weeks after becoming premier, Bjelke-Petersen's government gave two companies, Exoil NL and Transoil NL—in both of which he was a major shareholder—six-year leases to prospect for oil on the Great Barrier Reef north of Cooktown. Opposition Leader Jack Houston revealed the Premier's financial involvement in the companies at a press conference in March 1969, where he asserted Bjelke-Petersen had gained "fabulous wealth" from the £2 prospecting authority, which had now mushroomed into Exoil shares worth AU$720,000. Bjelke-Petersen said he had done nothing wrong, but resigned his directorship of Artesian in favour of his wife.[14]

The Country-Liberal coalition was returned to power at the 1969 Queensland election, with the state's system of electoral malapportionment delivering the Country Party 26 seats—a third of the parliament's 78 seats—from 21.1% of the primary vote, the Liberals taking 19 seats from 23.7% of the vote and the Labor Party's 45.1% share of the vote leaving it with 31 seats.

Bjelke-Petersen with Gordon Chalk in April 1971.

Further controversy followed. In June 1970 it was revealed that a number of Queensland government ministers and senior public servants, as well as Florence Bjelke-Petersen, had bought shares in the public float of Comalco, a mining company that had direct dealings with the government and senior ministers. The shares finished their first day of trading at double the price the ministers had paid. Bjelke-Petersen again rejected claims of a conflict of interest, but the Country Party state branch changed its policy to forbid the acceptance of preferential share offers by ministers or members of parliament.[15][16]

In October, the Country Party lost a by-election in the Gold Coast seat of Albert, prompting several nervous MPs to make plans to oust Bjelke-Petersen as leader and replace him with Ron Camm. Bjelke-Petersen spent the night and the next morning calling MPs to bolster support, surviving a party room vote by a margin of one, after producing a proxy vote of an MP who was overseas and uncontactable. Plans by Country Party members to support a Labor Party vote of no confidence in parliament were quashed after the intervention of party president Robert Sparkes, who warned that anyone who voted against Bjelke-Petersen would lose their status as the party's candidate at the next election.[15][16]

Bjelke-Petersen seized on the controversial visit of the Springboks, the South African rugby union team, in 1971 to consolidate his position as leader with a display of force.[17]

Springboks matches in southern states had already been disrupted by anti-apartheid demonstrations and a match in Brisbane was scheduled for 24 July 1971, the date of two Queensland by-elections. On 14 July Bjelke-Petersen declared a month-long state of emergency covering the entire state, giving the government almost unlimited power to quell what the government said was expected to be "a climax of violent demonstrations".[17][18][19] Six hundred police were transported to Brisbane from elsewhere in the state.[20]

In the week before the match, 40 trade unions staged a 24-hour strike, protesting against the proclamation. A crowd of demonstrators also mounted a peaceful protest outside the Springboks' Wickham Terrace motel and were chased on foot by police moments after being ordered to retreat, with many police attacking the crowd with batons, boots and fists.[18] It was one of a series of violent attacks by police on demonstrators during the Springboks' visit to Queensland.[21] The football game was played to a crowd of 7000 behind a high barbed-wire fence without incident.[17] The state of emergency, which gave the government the appearance of being strong-willed and decisive,[17] helped steer the government to victory in both by-elections held on match day. Police Special Branch member Don Lane was one of those elected, becoming a political ally of the Premier.[22]

Bjelke-Petersen praised police for their "restraint" during the demonstrations and rewarded the police union for its support with an extra week's leave for every officer in the state.[20] He described the tension over the Springboks' tour as "great fun, a game of chess in the political arena". The crisis, he said, "put me on the map".[23]

The following May—six months before the Labor Party's landslide victory at the 1972 Australian federal election under Gough Whitlam—the Country-Liberal coalition gained another comprehensive win at the 1972 Queensland state election: Bjelke-Petersen's party took 26 seats with 20% of the vote, the Liberals took 21 seats with a 22.2% share and Labor got 33 seats from 46.7%. It was the first state election to be fought following a 1971 electoral redistribution that added four seats to the parliament and created four electoral zones with a weightage towards rural seats, with the result that while Brisbane electorates averaged about 22,000 voters, some rural seats such as Gregory and Balonne had fewer than 7000.[4]

In April 1974 Bjelke-Petersen outmanoeuvred Whitlam after the prime minister offered Democratic Labor Party senator Vince Gair, a bitter opponent of the government, the position of ambassador to Ireland as a way of creating an extra vacant Senate position in Queensland. Whitlam, who lacked a majority in the Senate, hoped Gair's seat would be won by his Labor Party. But when the arrangement was disclosed by newspapers before Gair had resigned from the Senate, the Opposition conspired to keep Gair away from the Senate President (to whom Gair had not yet given his resignation) and ensured he voted in a Senate debate late that night to avoid any move to backdate the resignation.[30] At 5.15pm the Queensland Cabinet met to pass a "flying minute" and 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.[31] The intention was to have Gair's seat declared a casual vacancy, allowing Bjelke-Petersen to fill the vacancy until the next election.

Labor argued that Gair's appointment, and hence his departure from the senate, was effective from no later than when the Irish government accepted his appointment, in March. This was a matter of protracted debate in the Senate over many days, and was never resolved, but it was rendered irrelevant when Whitlam called a double dissolution of both Houses, in an election gamble he only narrowly won.

In October 1974 Bjelke-Petersen called an early election, setting the 1974 Queensland election for 7 December, declaring it would be fought on "the alien and stagnating, centralist, socialist, communist-inspired policies of the federal Labor government".[32] The premier visited 70 towns and cities in the five-week campaign and attracted record crowds to public meetings. The result was a spectacular rout for the Labor Party, which was left with just 11 of the legislature's 82 seats after a 16.5 percent swing to the Coalition, leading observers to call Labor's caucus a "cricket team." The only seat Labor retained north of Rockhampton was Cairns, by fewer than 200 votes. The National Party, contesting its first state election under the new name and fielding candidates in just 48 seats, lifted its vote from 19.7 percent to 28 percent, creating a threat for the Liberal Party, and also picked up a number of city seats including its first in Brisbane, the eastern suburbs seat of Wynnum. The Nationals even managed to oust Labor leader Perc Tucker in his own seat. The Australian newspaper named Bjelke-Petersen, whom it described as the "undistinguished" Queensland premier, "Australian of the Year", citing "the singular impact he has exerted on national political life".[32][33]

In 1975, Bjelke-Petersen played what turned out to be a key role in the political crisis that brought down the Whitlam government. When Queensland Labor Senator Bertie Milliner died suddenly in June 1975, Bjelke-Petersen requested from the Labor Party a short list of three nominees, from which he would pick one to replace Milliner.[31] The ALP refused to supply such a list, instead nominating Mal Colston, an unsuccessful Labor candidate in the 1970 election, whom Bjelke-Petersen duly rejected. On 3 September Bjelke-Petersen selected political novice Albert Field, a long-time ALP member who was critical of the Whitlam government.[31] Field's appointment was the subject of a High Court challenge and he was on leave from October 1975. During this period, the Coalition led by Malcolm Fraser declined to allot a pair to balance Field's absence. This gave the Coalition control over the Senate. Fraser used that control to obstruct passage of the Supply Bills through Parliament, denying Whitlam's by now unpopular government the legal capacity to appropriate funds for government business and leading to his dismissal as Prime Minister.[31] During the tumultuous election campaign precipitated by Whitlam's dismissal by the governor-general 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.[31]

Queensland was renowned for being the lowest taxed state in Australia for much of Bjelke-Petersen's tenure. Over heated objections by Treasurer Gordon Chalk,[34] Bjelke-Petersen in 1977 announced the removal of state death duties, a move that cost his state $30 million in revenue. So many New South Wales and Victorian residents sought to establish their permanent address in Queensland as a result, boosting state coffers with stamp duty from property transactions, that other states followed suit within months and also abolished the tax.[35] To help compensate for lost revenue, the government introduced football pools; four years later the government granted a casino licence on the Gold Coast, although this too was mired in allegations of corruption and favouritism.[36]

Issues of police powers and civil liberties, first raised at the time of the 1971 Springboks tour, resurfaced in July 1976 with a major street demonstration in which more than a thousand university students marched towards the Brisbane city centre to demand better allowances from the federal government. Police stopped the march in Coronation Drive and television cameras captured an incident during the confrontation in which a police inspector struck a 20-year-old female protester over the head with his baton, injuring her. When Police Commissioner Ray Whitrod announced he would hold an inquiry, a move supported by Police Minister Max Hodges, Bjelke-Petersen declared there would be no inquiry. He told reporters he was tired of radical groups believing they could take over the streets. Police officers passed a motion at a meeting commending the premier for his "distinct stand against groups acting outside the law" and censured Whitrod. A week later Bjelke-Petersen relieved Hodges of his police portfolio.[37][38] Secure in the knowledge that they had the Premier's backing, police officers continued to act provocatively, most notably in a military-style raid on a hippie commune at the Cedar Bay commune in Far North Queensland late the following month.[39] The police, who had been looking for marijuana, set fire to the residents' houses and destroyed their property.

Bjelke-Petersen rejected calls for an inquiry into the raid, declaring the government would believe the police and claiming the public clamour was "all part of an orchestrated campaign to legalise marijuana and denigrate the police". In defiance of the premier, Whitrod went ahead with an inquiry anyway and on 16 November ordered summonses be issued against four police officers on more than 25 charges, including arson. He chose the same day to announce that he was quitting his post. Whitrod claimed his resignation marked a victory for the forces of corruption, but said he had decided to quit rather than tolerate further political interference by the premier and new Police Minister Tom Newbery. Whitrod said Queensland showed signs of becoming a police state and he compared the growing political interference in law enforcement to the rise of the German Nazi state.[37] Whitrod was replaced by Assistant Commissioner Terry Lewis, despite Whitrod's warning to the Police Minister that he was corrupt.[22]

In 1977, Bjelke-Petersen announced that "the day of street marches is over", warning protesters, "Don't bother applying for a march permit. You won't get one. That's government policy now!"[40] Liberal parliamentarians crossed the floor defending the right of association and assembly.[41] One Liberal MP, Colin Lamont, told a meeting at the University of Queensland that the premier was engineering confrontation for electoral purposes and was confronted two hours later by an angry Bjelke-Petersen who said he was aware of the comments. Lamont later said he learned the Special Branch had been keeping files on Liberal rebels and reporting, not to their Commissioner, but directly to the Premier, commenting: "The police state had arrived."[41] When, after two ugly street battles between police and right-to-march protesters, the Uniting Church Synod called on the government to change the march law, Bjelke-Petersen accused the clergy of "supporting communists". His attack sparked a joint political statement by four other major religious denominations, which was shrugged off by the premier.[35]

The government's increasingly hardline approach to civil liberties prompted Queensland National Party president Robert Sparkes to warn the party that it was developing a dangerous "propaganda-created" ultra-conservative, almost fascist image. He told a party conference: "We must studiously avoid any statements or actions which suggest an extreme right-wing posture."[35] Bjelke-Petersen ignored the advice. He condemned the use of Australian foreign aid to prop up communist regimes, urged Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser to stop criticising the governments of South Africa and Rhodesia and from 1977 proposed Queensland secede from Australia and establish its own currency.[35] He also accused political opponents of being covert communists bent on chaos, observing: "I have always found ... you can campaign on anything you like but nothing is more effective than communism ... If he's a Labor man, he's a socialist and a very dangerous man."[42]

Three weeks before the 1977 Queensland election, 400 demonstrators were arrested in what a Melbourne newspaper called "Joh's War". Aided by an electoral redistribution that removed two Liberal-held seats, the Nationals won 35 out of 82 seats, compared with 24 for the Liberals and 23 for a resurgent Labor Party. It was the first time in Queensland political history the Nationals had outpolled the Liberals. Bjelke-Petersen used the party's strength to move key Cabinet posts that had long held by the Liberals into the hands of National Party ministers.[35] In October 1978 thousands of demonstrators again attempted to defy anti-march laws with a protest march in Albert St, Brisbane, which was again repulsed by police lined five deep.[43] In a Brisbane byelection a month later National Party support slumped to just 10 percent, half of what party strategists had expected. But by the end of 1978, both the state Liberal and Labor parties had new parliamentary leaders—the fourth Labor opposition leader during Bjelke-Petersen's reign and the third Liberal leader.[43]

Queensland political scientist Rae Wear described Bjelke-Petersen as an authoritarian who treated democratic values with contempt and was intolerant and resentful of opposition, yet who also demonstrated a down-home charm and old-fashioned courtesies as well as kindness to colleagues. Those who worked closely with him described him as stubborn with a propensity to fly into rages in which he would "rant and rave like Adolf Hitler", creating "fantastic performances" as he shook with rage, becoming increasingly incoherent. Many of his National Party colleagues were in terror of him on such occasions.[81] Raised by migrant parents in spartan rural surroundings, he combined a strong work ethic with an ascetic lifestyle that was strongly shaped by his Lutheran upbringing. As a young man Bjelke-Petersen lived alone for 15 years in an old cow bail with a leaky bark roof and only the most basic of facilities. He had a lifelong habit of hard work and long days and while premier often slept for just four hours a night. He valued "the School of Life, the hard knocks of life" more than formal education and showed little respect for academics and universities, although he accepted an honorary doctorate of Laws from the University of Queensland in May 1985, prompting criticism from both students and staff.[82][83] Wear dismissed Bjelke-Petersen's claim that he was a reluctant and accidental entrant into state politics, concluding that he "seized opportunity whenever it presented and held tenaciously to power", and was later willing to use any device to remain premier. She said that although Bjelke-Petersen denied ever knowing anything about corruption, "the evidence suggests this is untrue. He ignored it because to acknowledge its presence was to hand a weapon to his political enemies and because he was prepared to trade off corruption for police loyalty".[84][85]

Biographers have suggested that Bjelke-Petersen, raised under a resented patriarch, himself came to play the strong patriarch, refusing to be accountable to anyone: "Rather than explaining himself or answering questions, he demanded to be taken on trust."[86] He believed God had chosen him to save Australia from socialism[87] and also had a profound sense of Christian conscience that he said guided political decisions, explaining, "Your whole instinct cries out whether it's good or bad." A cousin of Bjelke-Petersen said the premier "has an inner certainty that he knows the answers to our political and social woes" and as a good Christian expected to be trusted, thus needing no constitutional checks and balances.[88]

Guided by media adviser Allen Callaghan, with whom he worked from 1971 to 1979, Bjelke-Petersen was an astute manager of news media. He made himself available to reporters and held daily press conferences where he "fed the chooks". Callaghan released a steady stream of press releases, timing them to coincide with periods when news editors were most desperate for news. For most of Bjelke-Petersen's premiership, Queensland newspapers were supportive of his government, generally supporting the police and government on the street march issue, while Brisbane's Courier-Mail endorsed the return of the coalition government at every state election between 1957 and 1986.[89]

According to Rae Wear, Bjelke-Petersen demanded total loyalty of the media and was unforgiving and vindictive if reporting was not to his satisfaction. In 1984, he reacted to a series of critical articles in the Courier-Mail by switching the government's million-dollar classified advertising account to the rival Daily Sun.[89] He banned a Courier-Mail reporter who was critical of his excessive use of the government aircraft and Wear claims other journalists who wrote critical articles became the subject of rumour-mongering, were harassed by traffic police, or found that "leaks" from the government dried up. Journalists covering industrial disputes and picketing were also afraid of arrest. In 1985, the Australian Journalists Association withdrew from the system of police passes because of police refusal to accredit certain journalists.[90] Journalists, editors and producers were also deterred from critical stories by Bjelke-Petersen's increasing use of defamation actions in order to try to "stop talk about a corrupt government". Queensland historian Ross Fitzgerald was threatened with criminal libel in 1984 when he sought to publish a critical history of the state.[91] The premier and his ministers launched 24 defamation actions against the Opposition leader and Labor Party and trade union figures, with 14 of them publicly funded.[89] He saw no role for the media in making government accountable, telling the Australian Financial Review in 1986: "The greatest thing that could happen to the state and the nation is when we get rid of the media. Then we would live in peace and tranquillity and no one would know anything."[89]

Callaghan's advice to Bjelke-Petersen included the recommendation that he maintain his rambling style of communication with mangled syntax, recognising it added to his homespun appeal to ordinary people and also allowed him to avoid giving answers. His catchphrase response to unwelcome queries was, "Don't you worry about that", a phrase that was used as the title of his 1990 memoir.[92] Wear wrote: "His verbal stumbling communicated decent simplicity and trustworthiness and, in order to enhance his popular appeal, Bjelke-Petersen appears to have exaggerated, or at least not tried to rid himself of, his famous speaking style."[89]

Bellevue Hotel, controversially demolished in 1979

The premier showed little concern for heritage and environmental issues, attracting widespread public fury over the 1979 demolition of Brisbane's historic Bellevue Hotel[93] and favouring oil drilling on the Great Barrier Reef[14] and sand mining on Moreton Island.[94] He opposed the expansion of Aboriginal land rights,[95] barred state officials from meeting World Council of Churches delegates who were studying the treatment of Aborigines in Queensland[94] and demonstrated a strong moralistic streak, banning Playboy magazine, opposing school sex education and condom vending machines and in 1980 proposing a ban on women flying south for abortions.[96] In May 1985 the government conducted a series of raids on so-called abortion clinics.[50]

Bjelke-Petersen had a confrontational approach to industrial relations. As a backbencher he had made clear his opposition to unions and the 40-hour week[97] and in 1979 he pushed for legislation that would lead to the lifetime loss of a driver's licence for union members using their own vehicles to organise strikes.

For four days in 1981, Queensland power workers had been using rotating blackouts and restrictions as a means of pressure. Bjelke-Petersen responded by closing licensed clubs and hotels and publishing the names and addresses of the 260 involved workers, with the aim of inspiring members of the public to harass them. The intimidation tactic worked and the union resumed normal work schedules within 15 minutes of government ads arriving in Brisbane newspapers. "I believe the Government now knows how in the future to approach such disputes in essential services", said Bjelke-Petersen.[98]

In 1982 he ordered the dismissal of teachers who were conducting rolling stoppages on the issue of class sizes. The same year he invoked the Essential Services Act to declare a state of emergency when government blue-collar workers launched industrial action to support a 38-hour week.

His biggest showdown with unions came in February 1985 when electrical workers, opposing the increasing use of contract labour in their industry, placed a ban on performing routine maintenance. Bjelke-Petersen ordered the shutdown of several of the states generators. That led to two weeks of blackouts. The government declared a state of emergency on 7 February, sacked as many as 1100 striking workers but offered their jobs back if they would sign a no-strike clause and work a 40-hour week; most accepted but 400 lost their jobs and superannuation. Labor compared the government with the Nazi regime, calling the new laws "police-state legislation".[50][99]

Bjelke-Petersen believed that he and his government knew what was best for Aboriginal Australians. He excused racially discriminatory legislation as a protective measure and generally supported Aboriginal self-determination at least partly as striking a blow against the monolithic centralism of Canberra under Labor.[100]

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."[101] 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.[102]

In 1978, the Uniting Church supported Aborigines at Aurukun and Mornington Island in their struggle with the Queensland Government after it granted a 1900 square kilometre mining lease to a mining consortium under extremely favourable conditions. The Aurukun people challenged the legislation, winning their case in the Supreme Court of Queensland but later losing when the Queensland Government appealed to the Privy Council of the United Kingdom.[103]

Bjelke-Petersen was opposed by Sir Robert Sparkes, church groups and the federal government over a 1982 push to abolish Aboriginal and Islander community reserves and to give title to the reserve lands to local councils elected by communities—titles that could be revoked by the government for unspecified reasons. Bjelke-Petersen claimed there were over-riding issues of defence and security because of fears of a communist plot to create a separate black nation in Australia.[95]

In 1982, Bjelke-Petersen also denied John Koowarta, an Aboriginal Wik man, the sale of the Archer River cattle station that covered large amounts of the Wik ancestral homeland, due to Aboriginal people 'not being allowed to buy large areas of land'. Koowarta appealed the decision to the High Court, arguing that the Queensland Government could not do this under the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth). The High Court overruled Bjelke-Petersen's decision, allowing the Wik nation's traditional land to be bought by Koowarta. The sale was to proceed, but at the last minute, Bjelke-Petersen, in an act described by Australian Conservation Foundation councillor Kevin Guy as one of "spite and prejudice,"[104] declared the Archer River property a national park, the Archer Bend National Park (now known as Oyala Thumotang National Park), to ensure that no one could ever own it. However, on 6 October 2010 Premier Anna Bligh announced that a 75,000 hectares (750 km²) portion of the park would be given over to the Wik-Mungkana peoples as freehold land. On 22 May 2012 Campbell Newman handed the park to the Oyala Thumotang Land Trust representing the Wik Mungkan, Southern Kaanju and Ayapathu and transferred a 75,074 hectares (750.74 km²) portion of land revoked from the park as freehold land.[105][106]

During his period in office Bjelke-Petersen frequently raised fears of a conspiracy of "southern homosexuals" to gain electoral advantage and to oppose the policies of the federal government or other states.[107]

Considerable development of the state's infrastructure took place during the Bjelke-Petersen era. He was a leading proponent of Wivenhoe and Burdekin Dams, encouraging the modernising and electrifying of the Queensland railway system, and the construction of the Gateway Bridge.[9] 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 Southeast 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. Bjelke-Petersen was one of the instigators of World Expo 88 (now South Bank Parklands) and the 1982 Brisbane Commonwealth Games.[9]

His government worked closely with property developers on the Gold Coast, who constructed resorts, hotels, a casino and a system of residential developments. In one controversial case, the Queensland government passed special legislation, the Sanctuary Cove Act 1985, to exempt a luxury development, Sanctuary Cove, from local government planning regulations.[108] 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.[109] The "white-shoe" nickname was a contemptuous allusion to the nouveau riche origins revealed by their gaudy and tasteless choice of clothing, which included brightly coloured or patterned shirts, slacks with white stripes or in pastel shades, and shoes and belts of white leather, these often having gold or gilt buckles. They became known for shady deals with the government concerning property development, often with dire consequences for heritage buildings.[110] A similar piece of legislation was passed to allow the Japanese company, Iwasaki Sangyo, to develop a tourist resort near Yeppoon in Central Queensland.

He was an associate of Milan Brych, who had previously been removed from the New Zealand Medical Register for promoting unproven cancer cures.[111][112][113]