Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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![]() Official portrait, c. 1980 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
31st Premier of Queensland | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
In office 8 August 1968 – 1 December 1987 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Monarch | Elizabeth II | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Governor | Alan Mansfield Colin Hannah James Ramsay Walter Campbell | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Deputy | Gordon Chalk William Knox Llew Edwards Bill Gunn | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Preceded by | Gordon Chalk | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Succeeded by | Mike Ahern | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
20th Deputy Premier of Queensland | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
In office 1 August 1968 – 8 August 1968 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Premier | Gordon Chalk | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Preceded by | Gordon Chalk | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Succeeded by | Gordon Chalk | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Johannes Bjelke-Petersen 13 January 1911 Dannevirke, New Zealand | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Died | 23 April 2005 Kingaroy, Queensland, Australia | (aged 94)||||||||||||||||||||||||
Resting place | Kingaroy, Queensland, Australia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Citizenship | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nationality | Australian | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Political party |
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Spouse | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Children | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Relatives | Bjelke-Petersen family | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Education | Taabinga State School | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Occupation | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
This article is part of a series on |
Conservatism in Australia |
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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 Country/National voters 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. Starting in 1987, this 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, retired 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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