Sir Joh skips over setback

Press, 10 March 1987, Page 6

Sir Joh skips over setback

NZPA correspondent Sydney Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen may have suffered a setback with his party’s showing in the week-end’s Northern Territory election, but he will continue his push to become Australia’s Prime Minister. Sir Joh, who returned to Australia on Sunday night from Tokyo, had told the whole world to watch the Territory election as the first real test of his move into federal politics. But the Northern Territory National Party, aligned to Sir Job's Queensland faction, won only 17.6 per cent of the primary vote before preferences are taken into account, and may even lose the one seat it held in the 25-seat Legislative Assembly. The Queensland Premier appeared unperturbed by the result. "I’m glad I told everyone to watch the outcome of this election because our achievement after campaigning for only three weeks has never been achieved anywhere in Australia,” he said. “You must remember I wasn’t in this election.” Meanwhile, the Labour Party is concerned enough by Sir Joh’s wellfunded campaign for the leadership to consider limiting political advertising before the federal election, said the "Sydney Morning Herald” yesterday. Last week, Sir Joh’s campaign director predicted a budget of sAust2o million ($24 million) for his federal election bid, compared with the sAustl4 million ($16.8 million) estimated as spent on the last election by all parties. The Labour Party’s national executive had discussed proposals to provide the main political parties with free time on television and a restricted amount of paid advertising time, according to the “Herald.” The proposals would be considered by a joint parliamentary select committee on electoral reform, due to report in August The newspaper said the Labour Party had long supported the idea of restricting campaign advertising, but it had been given some urgency by Sir Joh’s thrust for Canberra being financed by huge sums from wealthy Queensland businessmen.