Joh Bjelke-Petersen

Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen
Official portrait, c. 1980
31st Premier of Queensland
In office
8 August 1968 – 1 December 1987
MonarchElizabeth II
GovernorAlan Mansfield
Colin Hannah
James Ramsay
Walter Campbell
DeputyGordon Chalk
William Knox
Llew Edwards
Bill Gunn
Preceded byGordon Chalk
Succeeded byMike Ahern
20th Deputy Premier of Queensland
In office
1 August 1968 – 8 August 1968
PremierGordon Chalk
Preceded byGordon Chalk
Succeeded byGordon Chalk
Party leadership positions
Leader of the Country Party in Queensland[a]
In office
7 August 1968 – 1 December 1987
DeputyRon Camm
Bill Gunn
Preceded byJack Pizzey
Succeeded byMike Ahern
Deputy Leader of the Country Party in Queensland
In office
January 1968 – 7 August 1968
LeaderJack Pizzey
Preceded byJack Pizzey
Succeeded byRon Camm
Cabinet posts
38th Treasurer of Queensland
In office
19 August 1983 – 1 December 1987
Preceded byLlew Edwards
Succeeded byMike Ahern
Minister for Public Works and Housing
In office
26 September 1963 – 8 August 1968
PremierFrank Nicklin
Jack Pizzey
Gordon Chalk
Preceded byHarold Richter
Succeeded byMax Hodges
Constituency
Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly for Barambah
In office
29 April 1950 – 1 December 1987
Preceded byNew seat
Succeeded byTrevor Perrett
Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly for Nanango
In office
3 May 1947 – 29 April 1950
Preceded byJames Edwards
Succeeded bySeat abolished
Member of the Kingaroy Shire Council
In office
1946–1949
Personal details
Born
Johannes Bjelke-Petersen

(1911-01-13)13 January 1911
Dannevirke, New Zealand
Died23 April 2005(2005-04-23) (aged 94)
Kingaroy, Queensland, Australia
Resting placeKingaroy, Queensland, Australia
Citizenship
NationalityAustralian
Political party
Spouse
(m. 1952⁠–⁠2005)
Children4
RelativesBjelke-Petersen family
EducationTaabinga State School
Occupation

Sir Johannes Bjelke-Petersen[b] KCMG (13 January 1911 – 23 April 2005) was a conservative Australian politician. He was the longest-serving and longest-lived premier of Queensland,[2] holding office from 1968 to 1987, during which time the state underwent considerable economic development.[3] He has become one of the most well-known and controversial figures of 20th-century Australian politics because of his uncompromising conservatism (including his role in the downfall of the Whitlam federal government), political longevity, and the institutional corruption of his government.

Bjelke-Petersen's Country (later National) Party controlled Queensland despite frequently receiving a smaller number of votes than the state's two other major parties, achieving the result through a system of electoral malapportionment that resulted in rural votes having a greater value than those cast in city electorates.[4][5] The system earned Bjelke-Petersen the nickname "the Hillbilly Dictator". Regardless, he was a highly popular figure among conservative voters and over the course of his 19 years as premier he tripled the number of people who voted for the CP and doubled the party's percentage vote. After the Liberal Party pulled out of the coalition government in 1983, Bjelke-Petersen reduced his former partners to a mere eight seats in an election held later that year. In 1985 Bjelke-Petersen launched a campaign to move into federal politics to become prime minister, though the campaign was eventually aborted.

Bjelke-Petersen earned himself a reputation as a "law and order" politician with his repeated use of police force against street demonstrators[5] and strongarm tactics with trade unions, leading to descriptions of Queensland under his leadership as a police state. From 1987 his administration came under the scrutiny of a royal commission into police corruption and its links with state government ministers. Bjelke-Petersen was unable to recover from the series of damaging findings and after initially resisting a party vote that replaced him as leader, resigned from politics on 1 December 1987. Two of his state ministers, as well as the police commissioner Bjelke-Petersen had appointed and later knighted, were jailed for corruption offences and in 1991 Bjelke-Petersen, too, was tried for perjury over his evidence to the royal commission; the jury failed to reach a verdict as the jury foreman was a member of the Young Nationals and a member of the "Friends of Joh" group, and Bjelke-Petersen was deemed too old to face a second trial.


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  1. ^ "A Country Road: The Nationals: Joh Bjelke-Petersen". YouTube. Archived from the original on 12 December 2021. Retrieved 8 December 2018.
  2. ^ "Sir Joh celebrates 93rd birthday", Australian Broadcasting Corporation Archived 26 December 2004 at the Wayback Machine 13 January 2004.
  3. ^ "Sir Joh, our home-grown banana republican" Archived 28 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine, The Age, 25 April 2005.
  4. ^ Lunn, Hugh (1987). Joh: The Life and Political Adventures of Sir Johannes Bjelke-Petersen (2nd ed.). Brisbane: University of Queensland Press. pp. 119–123. ISBN 0-7022-2087-6.
  5. ^ a b Peter Charlton, "Law and order the making of unlikely leader," The Courier-Mail, 25 April 2005, pg 25.