Tarnished King of Queensland

Sir Johannes Bjelke-Petersen

* Sir Johannes Bjelke-Petersen, 1911-2005

KINGAROY - Sir Johannes ("call me Joh") Bjelke-Petersen, Premier of Queensland for almost 20 years, has died in South Burnett Community Private Hospital in Kingaroy, Queensland, aged 94.

He died at about 8pm NZT on Saturday, surrounded by his family. One of Australia's most controversial political leaders will be honoured with a state funeral in Kingaroy on May 3 and buried on the family property, Bethany.

New Zealand-born Sir Joh, Queensland Premier from 1968 to 1987, was admitted to hospital last Monday and his family maintained a bedside vigil over five days.

He spent much of the last year of his life bedridden and unable to speak as he deteriorated from a condition known as progressive supranuclear palsy.

Variously described as a good bloke or Bible-bashing bastard, Joh's tenure encompassed some of the most controversial years in Queensland's history.

He opposed homosexuals, lesbians, do-gooders, trade unionists, those who sought to improve the lot of Aborigines, street demonstrators, environmentalists, political moderates of all kinds, and critics of his wife, Flo.

His retaliation for the New Zealand Government's no-nukes policy and risk to the Anzus agreement was trade restrictions: he refused to allow New Zealand-made chocolates into Queensland, saying they did not meet the state's health labelling regulations.

Health officials raided a pub one night and seized all the Steinlager beer, for the same reason.

Most detractors will point to the Fitzgerald inquiry in the late 1980s that exposed Sir Joh's Government as the most corrupt in the state's history.

Four government ministers went to jail as a result of the two-year inquiry, while former police commissioner Terry Lewis was stripped of his knighthood and also later jailed for corruption.

The allegations of wrongdoing by his Administration led to Sir Joh resigning in 1987.

While his political reign ended in shame, Joh supporters hailed the rapid development of Queensland during his years in the state's top job. Others would argue he set the state back decades and made it a laughing stock in the rest of Australia. He may have been lampooned by many as an ultra-conservative wowser with the catchcry "Don't you worry about that", but Sir Joh's life story is still a remarkable one.

Joh Bjelke-Petersen was born in Dannevirke on January 13, 1911, the son of a Lutheran minister. The family moved to Queensland when Joh was 2, and took up a block of rough scrubby land in the backblocks, which they converted into a farm.

Joh left school at 13 to help clear scrub. For 15 years he lived alone in an empty cowshed while he cleared the land next door to the family property for a peanut farm.

He married Florence Gilmour in 1952, by which time he had been involved in state politics for five years. He became state Premier in 1968.

In 1971 he caused nationwide controversy by declaring a state of emergency to counter threatened anti-apartheid demonstrations during the Springbok rugby match in Brisbane.

When Canberra decided to change the Australian national anthem, Queensland stayed with God Save the Queen. His loyalty was rewarded - he was knighted in the Queen's Birthday honours in 1984.

His attempt to enter federal politics in 1987 was laughed at when it was first mooted, but the jokes turned sour as the possibility of Joh as Prime Minister became more likely. His drive to wrest control of the Australian National Party from Ian Sinclair failed, and he abandoned his attempt.

Bob Hawke's Labor Party was returned to power with an increased majority that year, and Joh was blamed by coalition leader John Howard for the loss. "Over the last six months I have spent 75 per cent of my time putting out bushfires on my own side and 25 per cent fighting the Labor Party."

In 1990 Sir Joh was charged with perjury, committed at the Fitzgerald inquiry, and also with corruption. The costs associated with the court case, as well as the loss of retirement benefits, left him with little. Lady Flo was still a federal senator in Canberra, and Sir Joh was home alone. 

What they said about Sir Joh

* Gough Whitlam in 1974: "[He] is a Bible-bashing bastard - the man is a paranoiac, a bigot and fanatical."

* Columnist Phillip Adams, comparing Sir Joh with Peter Sellers' character, the moronic Chance, in the movie Being There: "Both [Joh and Ronald Reagan] have visions as limited as their vocabularies, yet both these grotesque garden gnomes are seen as colossi by their deluded followers. The louder we laughed at them, the more powerful they became. The more improbable their careers, the more certain their ascendancy."

* Former ALP national president Barry Jones: "He is the Ayatollah of the north: how can you have an open debate in the Kafka-like atmosphere of secrecy and cronyism of Joh-style politics?"

- AAP, STAFF REPORTER 

What he said  

* November 10, 1987: after setting August the next year as his retirement date - "I'll be taking my own advice. That's the best advice you can get."
* September 1986: to television interviewer Clive James after being asked by James if he was a fascist dictator - "Some people say I am, but I think I'm a kind, loving one."
* May 5, 1986: to would-be street demonstrators - "Don't bother asking for a permit to march. It won't be granted. It's not Government policy."
* January 10, 1985: on the nomination of New Zealand Prime Minister David Lange for the Nobel Peace Prize - "It must have come from the communists, the extreme left wing and fellow travellers."

A few more:

- "The trouble is that Queensland gets branded as part of Australia."
- "Queensland Aborigines live like kings, they are on clover."
- "Just because a few immigrants want their spicy tucker, I fail to see why the Australian community as a whole should suffer the possibility of disease."
- On being compared to God: "No mortal should ever be compared with God, not even me."
- On human rights: What's the ordinary man in the street got to do with it?"
- On holding news conferences: "I call it feeding the chooks."
- On the media in general: "The greatest thing that could happen to the state and the nation is when we get rid of all the media. Then we could live in peace and tranquillity, and no one would know anything."

- compiled by Phoebe Falconer