Sir Johannes Bjelke-Petersen was a conservative Australian politician. He was the longest-serving and longest-lived premier of Queensland, holding office from 1968 to 1987, during which time the state underwent considerable economic development. He has become one of the most well-known and controversial figures of 20th-century Australian politics because of his uncompromising conservatism, political longevity, and the institutional corruption of his government.
Wayne Keith Goss was Premier of Queensland from 7 December 1989 until 19 February 1996, becoming the first Labor Premier of the state in over thirty two years. Prior to entering politics, Goss was a solicitor, and after leaving politics he served as Chairman of the Queensland Art Gallery and Chairman of Deloitte Australia.
The Joh for Canberra campaign, initially known as the Joh for PM campaign, was an attempt by Queensland National Party premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen to become Prime Minister of Australia. The campaign was announced in January 1987 and drew substantial support from Queensland businessmen and some conservative politicians. The campaign caused a split in the federal Coalition. It did not attract widespread support and collapsed in June 1987. The Australian Labor Party, led by Bob Hawke, went on to win the 1987 federal election with an increased majority, gaining its highest-ever number of seats. Bjelke-Petersen came under increasing scrutiny as the Fitzgerald Inquiry gained traction, and was forced out of politics altogether in December 1987.
The Commission of Inquiry into Possible Illegal Activities and Associated Police Misconduct into Queensland Police corruption was a judicial inquiry presided over by Tony Fitzgerald QC. The inquiry resulted in the resignation of Queensland's premier, Joh Bjelke-Petersen, the calling of two by-elections, and the jailing of three former ministers and the Police Commissioner Terry Lewis. It also contributed to the end of the National Party of Australia's 32-year run as the governing political party in Queensland.
Robert Edward Borbidge is a former Australian politician who served as the 35th Premier of Queensland from 1996 to 1998. He was the leader of the Queensland branch of the National Party, and was the last member of that party to serve as premier. His term as premier was contemporaneous with the rise of the One Nation Party of Pauline Hanson, which would see him lose office within two years.
The Bjelkemander was the term given to a system of malapportionment in the Australian state of Queensland in the 1970s and 1980s. Under the system, electorates were allocated to zones such as rural or metropolitan and electoral boundaries drawn so that rural electorates had about half as many voters each as metropolitan ones. The Country Party, a rural-based party led by Joh Bjelke-Petersen, was able to govern uninhibited during this period due to the 'Bjelkemander' and the absence of an upper house of Parliament.
Theo Russell Cooper is an Australian retired National Party politician. He was Premier of Queensland for a period of 73 days, from 25 September 1989 to 7 December 1989. His loss at the state election of 1989 ended 32 years of continuous National Party rule over Queensland.
Michael John Ahern was an Australian National Party politician who was Premier of Queensland from December 1987 to September 1989. After a long career in the government of Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, Ahern became his successor amid the controversy caused by the Fitzgerald Inquiry into official corruption. Ahern's consensus style and political moderation contrasted strongly with Bjelke-Petersen's leadership, but he could not escape the division and strife caused by his predecessor's downfall.
The 1987 Australian federal election was held in Australia on 11 July 1987, following the granting of a double dissolution on 5 June by the Governor-General Sir Ninian Stephen. Consequently, all 148 seats in the House of Representatives as well as all 76 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Australian Labor Party, led by Prime Minister Bob Hawke, defeated the opposition Liberal Party of Australia, led by John Howard and the National Party of Australia led by Ian Sinclair. This was the first, and to date only, time the Labor Party won a third consecutive election.
This is a list of members of the 45th Legislative Assembly of Queensland from 1986 to 1989, as elected at the 1986 state election held on 1 November 1986.
Edmund Denis Casey, known as Ed, was best known as the leader of the Australian Labor Party in Queensland between 1978 and 1982. He also served as Primary Industries Minister in the government of Wayne Goss between 1989 and 1995. Casey was the member for Mackay in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland between 1969 and 1995.
Leisha Teresa Harvey is a former Australian politician. She was a National Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland from 1983 to 1989, representing the electorate of Greenslopes. She served as Minister for Health in the government of Mike Ahern government from 1987 until her sacking in January 1989. She lost her seat at the election that December, and was not long out of Parliament when she was charged with numerous counts of misappropriation of public funds concerning her usage of her official credit card. After a high-profile trial in 1990 and subsequent conviction, she spent five months in prison and a further seven months in home detention.
Donald Frederick Lane was a Minister of Transport in the Bjelke-Petersen state of Queensland's coalition government. A former policeman in the Special Branch, in 1971 he was elected as the Liberal member for Merthyr, an electorate which included the Fortitude Valley where a lot of the then illegal brothels and casinos were located. During his time with the Police, he had gotten to know Jack Herbert the Chief Organiser of The Joke, and the "Rat Pack" of Terry Lewis, Tony Murphy and Glenn Hallahan well. Following the 1983 Queensland state election he switched to the National Party, providing it with an outright majority, and was rewarded with a ministry. He went on to lead the National Party’s submission to the Electoral Commission to more effectively gerrymander and malapportion seats to increase National Party control. It was revealed in the Fitzgerald Inquiry, that Lane had significant unexplained income, and was alleged by Jack Herbert to have taken bribes. Lane didn’t admit to taking bribes, instead he admitted to abusing Ministerial expenses and claimed a lot of other Ministers had done the same. In the end Lane and three other Bjelke-Petersen ministers were tried in the District Court and sentenced to twelve months imprisonment for falsifying their expense accounts.
William Angus Manson Gunn AM was an Australian politician who represented the Queensland Legislative Assembly seat of Somerset from 1972 until 1992. A member of the National Party, he also served as a Minister and Deputy Premier in various Queensland administrations during the 1980s, and was instrumental in establishing the Fitzgerald Inquiry.
The 1989 Merthyr state by-election was a by-election held on 13 May 1989 for the Queensland Legislative Assembly seat of Merthyr, based in the inner Brisbane suburb of New Farm.
A by-election was held in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland seat of South Coast on 28 August 1988. It was triggered by the resignation of sitting National Party member Russ Hinze.
Terrence Anthony White is an Australian pharmacist, businessman, and former politician. White achieved notoriety when, as Queensland state leader of the Liberal Party he terminated the longstanding coalition agreement between the Liberal Party and the National Party of Joh Bjelke-Petersen. In the ensuing election, the Liberals were badly defeated, and White was replaced as party leader. After leaving politics, he established Terry White Chemmart, a nationwide pharmacy franchise, and became a widely respected businessman.
The Ginger group, in Queensland politics was a group of Liberal Party MLAs during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, who despite nominally being a part of the government, were opposed to some of the policies of their senior coalition partner, the National Party. Initially a small informal grouping within the Liberal Party, the group came to wield greater and greater power within the Liberal partyroom, culminating in Terry White's successful leadership challenge in 1983, and the party's subsequent defeat and loss of influence at the 1983 election.
The National Party of Australia – Queensland (NPA-Q), commonly known as Queensland Nationals, or the National Party of Queensland, was the Queensland-state branch of the National Party of Australia (NPA) until 2008. Prior to 1974, it was known as the Country Party. The party was disestablished in 2008.
The Queensland Liberal Party, officially known as the Liberal Party of Australia (Queensland Division), was the Queensland division of the Liberal Party of Australia until 2008.
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