Sir Joh: Moralist who ruled for 19 years

Press, 2 December 1987, Page 10

Sir Joh: Moralist who ruled for 19 years

NZPA-Reuter Sydney

The last week has tested every political trick Sir Joh Bjelke-Pet-ersen learnt during 19 years as Premier of Queensland, as he attempted to maintain his grip on power in Australia’s most Right-wing state.

The 76-yeaf-old union basher and stenr moralist refused to “rtsiign his premiership last week after being ousted as head of the state’s National Party.

During his time as leader of the vast tropical north-eastern state known as the “Deep North,” Sir Joh has been a constant foe of Socialist governments in Canberra.

But his attempt to remove the present Labour Party Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, by entering Federal politics earlier this year ended in ignominious defeat when his campaign merely served to split the Opposition. Mr Hawke took advan-

tage of the disarray and won a third successive term in office — unprecedented for a Labour Prime Minister. The tall, craggy Queensland Premier’s condemnation of homosexuals and what he calls the “condom culture” convinced many his supporters that their man had become an anachronism in a State which Has' become" modern and tourist-orien-tated. “Jackboot Joh,” as he is called by his oppon-

ents, ordered the police to remove condom machines installed at Brisbane University, a decision opposed by most of his party and even his own Lutheran Church.

“I’m going to protect our boys and girls as far as I can from it (the condom culture),” Sir Joh said., The man normally portrayed in cartoons wearing a traditional drover’s hat is famous for his socalled Johisms, such as: “We’re heading in all directions at once”.