Canberra crusade starts to warm up

Press, 6 March 1987, Page 6

Canberra crusade starts to warm up

By AAP correspondent Jamie Collins (through NZPA) Brisbane The Premier, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, may have been overseas for nearly a week but the publicity generated for his Canberra crusade has only served to intensify the thirst for the story in his absence. While in Japan telling the business world he intends to become the Prime Minister of Australia to clean up a sick economy, the explosive political environment he has created is quickly coming to ignition point. Both the Queensland National Party president, Sir Robert Sparkes, and his senior vice-president,' Charlie Holm, have called for a cooling-off period before the meeting of the party’s Federal Council in Canberra at the end of this month.

But speculation about policies and the next moves in the “Joh For P.M.” movement is rampant. To boost things, a party strategist, Fred Maybury, holds a news conference today to unveil the first promotion for the campaign. The pressure for the Premier to declare his policies is also growing. Sir Joh said from Tokyo yesterday they would not be released until the election was called, but this places him at odds with his constant bucketing of the Federal Opposition for not having policies in place already. Sir Robert said yesterday that neither detailed policies nor formal organisation of the nationwide campaign to promote Queensland’s 76-year-old Premier were ready yet. This would take some weeks.