Terry White | |
---|---|
Leader of the Queensland Liberal Party Elections: 1983 | |
In office 9 August 1983 –3 November 1983 | |
Deputy | Angus Innes |
Preceded by | Llew Edwards |
Succeeded by | William Knox |
Minister for Welfare Services | |
In office 23 December 1980 –4 August 1983 | |
Premier | Joh Bjelke-Petersen |
Preceded by | Sam Doumany |
Succeeded by | Bill Hewitt |
Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly for Redcliffe | |
In office 1 September 1979 –2 December 1989 | |
Preceded by | Jim Houghton |
Succeeded by | Ray Hollis |
Personal details | |
Born | Terrence Anthony White 3 September 1936 Nundah,Queensland,Australia |
Political party | Liberal Party |
Spouse | Rhonda Mary Conn (m.1961) |
Alma mater | University of Queensland |
Occupation | Chemist,Company director |
Terrence Anthony White AO (born 3 September 1936) [1] 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 TerryWhite Chemmart,a nationwide pharmacy franchise,and became a widely respected businessman.
In 2006,White was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia. In 2012,White was a recipient of the Queensland Greats Awards. [2]
White was born in 1936,and received his initial education at the Sisters of Mercy convent in Sandgate,and St. Columban's at Albion. White showed ambition from a young age,attempting to enroll himself at Nudgee College without telling his parents so that he could receive a good education. White's working-class family were unable at first to pay the fees demanded by the school,but eventually,White's mechanic father Bill came to an arrangement with the school to waive Terry's fees in exchange for maintaining the college vehicles for free and for providing buses to transport the students to nearby suburbs for sporting events,when required. [3]
After high school,White decided on the recommendation of a friend to study pharmacy. White endured 73 interviews with master pharmacists to find a position as an apprentice,before finally receiving a position at a pharmacy in Scarborough. After graduating as a pharmacist in his own right,White purchased a pharmacy at Woody Point in 1958. He later headed overseas and first experienced politics when he worked on the presidential campaign of John F. Kennedy. Upon his return to Australia,he joined the Queensland branch of the Liberal Party of Australia. [3]
White was first elected to parliament on 1 September 1979,at a by-election for the seat of Redcliffe following the retirement of incumbent National Party member Jim Houghton. [4]
A small-l liberal,White was not at home with the conservative bent of the National-led government of Joh Bjelke-Petersen,even though he was technically a government backbencher. He advocated seeking senior status for the Liberals in the coalition with the National Party in order to ensure what he described as "responsible democratic government". In Queensland,the Nationals were traditionally the dominant partner in the non-Labor coalition,a reverse of the situation in the rest of Australia. White fell in with a group of MPs known as the "ginger group". This group disagreed with Bjelke-Petersen and Liberal leader Llew Edwards on a number of issues,including the system of electoral malapportionment in use within Queensland at the time,reducing the power of the National Party in the cabinet,and removing the controversial street march laws in place at the time. [5] Despite many of these views being in opposition to Edwards' views and government policy,White was appointed as the minister for Welfare Services in December 1980,just fifteen months after entering parliament. [4] [6]
Despite his appointment to cabinet,White continued to have frequent differences of opinion with Edwards. Matters came to a head on 4 August 1983,when Liberal MLA Ian Prentice moved a motion to bring forward debate on the establishment of a public accounts committee to monitor government spending. While this had been approved by a resolution at a Liberal party convention,it was bitterly opposed by Bjelke-Petersen and Edwards was not keen to have it debated,for fear of destabilising the coalition. A division was called,and White and the rest of the "ginger group" crossed the floor to vote with the Labor opposition in favour of the motion. White argued that the principle of cabinet solidarity,which would normally compel him to vote against the motion,did not apply in this case because there was no official government policy on the matter. [5]
This explanation did not sit well with Edwards,who promptly sacked White as Welfare Minister,with Bjelke-Petersen's vocal and public support. [5] In response,White called a spill motion in the partyroom to declare the party leadership open. Edwards was unable to defeat this motion and declined to renominate for the party leadership. White was elected his successor. [7]
Immediately after the spill,White and his new deputy,fellow "ginger group" member Angus Innes,made their way to Bjelke-Petersen's office in the Executive Building to inform him of the new leadership arrangements within the Liberal Party,as well as the need to revise the coalition agreement. Bjelke-Petersen kept the pair waiting outside his office for an hour,in full view of the media,while working on a way to bypass White and the Liberal Party altogether. [6] Bjelke-Petersen had previously stated that he would not work with Innes,and when he finally admitted White and Innes to his office,he informed them that he would not be appointing White as the deputy premier,as was customary under the existing coalition arrangement. [5]
In response,White pulled the Liberals out of the Coalition,leaving Bjelke-Petersen seven seats short of a majority. He tore up a copy of the press release issued by Bjelke-Petersen explaining his actions,a move that was interpreted by the media at the time as White symbolically tearing up long-standing coalition agreement. [8] White then led the Liberal MLAs to the crossbench. However,he never actually had the opportunity to lead the Liberals on the floor of the legislature,because Bjelke-Petersen had some days earlier convinced the governor to indefinitely adjourn Parliament. Bjelke-Petersen was,therefore,able to govern for the nine weeks until the 1983 election,free from parliamentary scrutiny and the threat of a no-confidence motion. [5]
At the election,Bjelke-Petersen targeted his campaign mainly at right-leaning Liberal voters. He suggested that under White,the Liberals might throw their support behind Labor. The Nationals scored a resounding victory,winning 41 seats in the 82-member parliament,one short of a majority. [9] The Liberals lost 14 seats,leaving them with only eight MLAs. Of the 18 seats that were contested by both a National and a Liberal,the Nationals out-polled the Liberals in 15,and of the "ginger group",only White and Innes retained their seats. [5] They faced the prospect of further blows when Bjelke-Petersen openly invited Liberal MLAs to defect to the Nationals. [10] Two Liberals,Don Lane and Brian Austin,took up his offer,giving the Nationals an outright majority and leaving only six remaining Liberals. At the time,White remarked that "The scent of ministerial leather is a powerful aphrodisiac." [11] That spelled the end of White's leadership,and William Knox was elected to lead the remnants of the party on 3 November. White's term as leader of the Liberal Party had lasted less than three months. [5]
White remained in parliament as a Liberal backbencher. He remained a popular MP –for instance,at the 1986 election he swept every booth in his seat. He managed to stay out of the limelight until the Fitzgerald Inquiry. During 1988,he was subjected to numerous depositions about discussions that took place during his time in the cabinet. While he was ultimately cleared of wrongdoing,the numerous lawyers and accountants he had to employ ate into his parliamentary salary and nearly brought down his pharmacy business. At the 1989 state election,White was defeated in the massive Labor wave that swept through Queensland. [8]
After leaving parliament,White concentrated once more on his business career,encouraged by his wife Rhonda. He sold his first franchise in 1994,and by 2010 there were over 150 Terry White Chemists outlets across the country,the majority of which are owned and operated by franchisees. White has also served as President of the Pharmacy Guild,and was involved in the founding of the Australian Institute of Pharmacy Management. [3] [12]
In 2012,White was appointed Board Chairman of Metro South Hospital and Health Service (HHS),a government statutory body responsible for the management of five public hospitals,as well as a range of other healthcare facilities across the southside of Brisbane. [13]
In February 2023,Terry and his wife Rhonda sold their remaining pharmacies in Australia Fair and the Myer Centre. They also sold their pharmacy services business,White Retail Group,to EBOS Group. [14] The couple announced their retirement in September 2023. Post-retirement,White continued compiling and digitising his business and political documents for the State Library of Queensland. [15]
In the 2006 Australia Day Honours,White was appointed an Officer (AO) in the General Division of the Order of Australia. [16] [17]
White was inducted into the Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame in 2011,for his significant contribution to the advancement of the pharmacy profession (Terry White Chemists) and to his community. [18] [19]
In 2012,White was a recipient of the Queensland Greats Awards. [2]
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Elections were held in the Australian state of Queensland on 1 November 1986 to elect the 89 members of the state's Legislative Assembly. It followed a redistribution which increased the number of seats in the Assembly from 82 to 89.
Elections were held in the Australian state of Queensland on 22 October 1983 to elect the 82 members of the state's Legislative Assembly.
Elections were held in the Australian state of Queensland on 12 November 1977 to elect the 82 members of the state's Legislative Assembly.
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 did not 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.
Sir William Edward Knox OSJ,KSJI was born in Kew,Victoria,Australia and was the Member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland representing the district of Nundah for the Liberal Party between from 1957 to 1989. He was Liberal leader in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland from 1976 to 1978 and again from 1983 to 1988 and was given life membership that same year.
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.
John Angus Mackenzie Innes was a Queensland politician and leader of the state Liberal Party.
Colin Charles Lamont was an Australian politician. He was a Liberal Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland from 1974 until 1977,representing the electorate of South Brisbane.
Guelfi Paul Scassola was an Australian politician. He was a Liberal Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland from 1977 until 1983,representing the electorate of Mount Gravatt.
Bruce Edward Bishop was an Australian businessman and politician. He was a Liberal Party member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly from 1977 until 1980,representing the electorate of Surfers Paradise. He was also a prominent member of the Gold Coast City Council during the 1970s.
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.