98-551: Defunct Defunct The Australian Conservative Party was founded as a registered political party in 1989, under the leadership of Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen , the Premier of Queensland from 1968 to 1988. It remained active until 1991 when it was deregistered by the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) when the membership fell below the required 500 members. The party then attempted to reform under
196-517: A military dictatorship with the Ba'ath party as its civilian cover to enforce the loyalty of Syrian populations to the Assad family . The dreaded Mukhabarat was given free hand to terrorise, torture or murder non-compliant civilians, while public activities of any organized opposition was curbed down with the raw firepower of the army . The region of modern-day Korea is claimed to have elements of
294-469: A secret police force that operates outside the boundaries normally imposed by a constitutional state . Robert von Mohl , who first introduced the rule of law to German jurisprudence , contrasted the Rechtsstaat ("legal" or "constitutional" state) with the anti- aristocratic Polizeistaat ("police state"). The Oxford English Dictionary traces the phrase "police state" back to 1851, when it
392-534: A 16.5 percent swing to the Coalition, leading observers to call Labor's caucus a "cricket team." The only seat Labor retained north of Rockhampton was Cairns , by fewer than 200 votes. The National Party, contesting its first state election under the new name and fielding candidates in just 48 seats, lifted its vote from 19.7 percent to 28 percent, creating a threat for the Liberal Party, and also picked up
490-562: A 27.9 percent primary vote—their highest ever—into 35 of the parliament's 82 seats, or 43 percent of seats. It also created a record 13-seat lead over their coalition partners, the Liberals, who had campaigned by offering Queenslanders an alternative style of moderate government. The Nationals picked up all four Gold Coast seats and all those on the Sunshine Coast . Once again the premier took advantage of his party's dominance over
588-544: A Labor vote of no confidence on the floor of the legislature were quashed after the intervention of party president Robert Sparkes , who warned that anyone who voted against Bjelke-Petersen would lose Country Party preselection at the next state election. Bjelke-Petersen seized on the controversial visit of the Springboks , the South African rugby union team, in 1971 to consolidate his position as leader with
686-480: A National Party trustee and close friend of Bjelke-Petersen, after a breathalyser test showed he was driving with more than double the legal blood alcohol limit . Relations with the Liberal Party continued to deteriorate. By August 1983, after 26 years of coalition, they had reached their nadir. Bjelke-Petersen was angered by a Liberal Party bid to establish a public accounts committee to examine government expenditure. Shortly afterward, Liberal leader Llew Edwards
784-592: A bid to broaden its appeal beyond rural voters, the Country Party changed its name to the National Party. In April 1974 Bjelke-Petersen outmanoeuvred Whitlam after the prime minister offered Democratic Labor Party senator Vince Gair , a bitter opponent of the government, the position of ambassador to Ireland as a way of creating an extra vacant Senate position in Queensland. Whitlam, who lacked
882-460: A child while his father moved to Australia as a young man. His father's siblings included prominent novelist Marie Bjelke-Petersen and physical culture advocate Christian Bjelke-Petersen . Bjelke-Petersen's parents had moved from Queensland to New Zealand in 1903, where his father, a Lutheran minister, was posted to the originally Scandinavian settlement of Dannevirke. The family returned to Australia in 1913 to aid his father's health, settling on
980-577: A display of force. Springboks matches in southern states had already been disrupted by anti- apartheid demonstrations and a match in Brisbane was scheduled for 24 July 1971, the date of two Queensland by-elections. On 14 July Bjelke-Petersen declared a month-long state of emergency covering the entire state, giving the government almost unlimited power to quell what the government said was expected to be "a climax of violent demonstrations". Six hundred police were transported to Brisbane from elsewhere in
1078-630: A farming property named "Bethany" near Kingaroy, Queensland . Bjelke-Petersen was raised in a conservative religious household, with the Sabbath strictly observed and daily Bible readings; his mother ran a Sunday school from the family home. At their father's insistence, he and his siblings were raised speaking Danish as their home language, something atypical of Scandinavian immigrants in Australia who more often rapidly adopted English. The young Bjelke-Petersen suffered from polio , leaving him with
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#17327804429861176-417: A heightened role in governance . A police state is a characteristic of authoritarian , totalitarian or illiberal regimes (contrary to a liberal democratic regime ). Such governments are typically one-party states and dominant-party states , but police-state-level control may emerge in multi-party systems as well. Originally, a police state was a state regulated by a civil administration , but since
1274-407: A high level of sophistication in dealing with news media. He held daily media conferences where he joked that he "fed the chooks", established direct telex links to newsrooms where he could feed professionally written media releases and became adept at distributing press releases on deadline so journalists had very little chance to research news items. The Premier's public profile rose rapidly with
1372-421: A junior coalition partner. This was a reversal of the situation at the national level. Queensland is Australia's least centralised mainland state; the provincial cities between them have more people than the Brisbane area. In these areas, the Country Party was stronger than the Liberal Party. As a result, the Country Party had historically been the larger of the two non-Labor parties, and had been senior partner in
1470-686: A key role in the political crisis that brought down the Whitlam government. When Queensland Labor Senator Bertie Milliner died suddenly in June 1975, Bjelke-Petersen requested from the Labor Party a short list of three nominees, from which he would pick one to replace Milliner. The ALP refused to supply such a list, instead nominating Mal Colston , an unsuccessful Labor candidate in the 1970 election, whom Bjelke-Petersen duly rejected. On 3 September Bjelke-Petersen selected political novice Albert Field ,
1568-549: A lifelong limp. The family was poor, and his father was frequently in poor health. Bjelke-Petersen left formal schooling at age 14 to work with his mother on the farm, though he later enrolled in correspondence school and undertook a University of Queensland extension course on the "Art of Writing". He taught Sunday school , delivered sermons regularly in nearby towns and joined the Kingaroy debating society. In 1933, Bjelke-Petersen began work land-clearing and peanut farming on
1666-576: A long-time ALP member who was critical of the Whitlam government. Field's appointment was the subject of a High Court challenge and he was on leave from October 1975. During this period, the Coalition led by Malcolm Fraser declined to allot a pair to balance Field's absence. This gave the Coalition control over the Senate. Fraser used that control to obstruct passage of the Supply Bills through Parliament, denying Whitlam's by now unpopular government
1764-529: A majority in the Senate, hoped Gair's seat would be won by his Labor Party. But when the arrangement was disclosed by newspapers before Gair had resigned from the Senate, the Opposition conspired to keep Gair away from the Senate President (to whom Gair had not yet given his resignation) and ensured he voted in a Senate debate late that night to avoid any move to backdate the resignation. At 5.15pm
1862-429: A move supported by Police Minister Max Hodges, Bjelke-Petersen declared there would be no inquiry. He told reporters he was tired of radical groups believing they could take over the streets. Police officers passed a motion at a meeting commending the premier for his "distinct stand against groups acting outside the law" and censured Whitrod. A week later Bjelke-Petersen relieved Hodges of his police portfolio. Secure in
1960-526: A new company, Exoil NL, for £190,000, and Bjelke-Petersen in turn bought a million shares in Exoil. On 1 September 1968, three weeks after becoming premier, Bjelke-Petersen's government gave two companies, Exoil NL and Transoil NL—in both of which he was a major shareholder—six-year leases to prospect for oil on the Great Barrier Reef north of Cooktown . Opposition Leader Jack Houston revealed
2058-492: A number of city seats including its first in Brisbane, the eastern suburbs seat of Wynnum . The Nationals even managed to oust Labor leader Perc Tucker in his own seat. The Australian newspaper named Bjelke-Petersen, whom it described as the "undistinguished" Queensland premier, "Australian of the Year", citing "the singular impact he has exerted on national political life". In 1975, Bjelke-Petersen played what turned out to be
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#17327804429862156-541: A pilot's licence early in his adult life, Bjelke-Petersen also started aerial spraying and grass seeding to further speed up pasture development in Queensland. After failing in a 1944 plebiscite against the sitting member to gain Country Party endorsement in the state seat of Nanango , based on Kingaroy, Bjelke-Petersen was elected in 1946 to the Kingaroy Shire Council , where he developed
2254-641: A police state, from the Juche -style Silla kingdom, to the imposition of a fascist police state by the Japanese , to the totalitarian police state imposed and maintained by the Kim family . Paris-based Reporters Without Borders has ranked North Korea last or second last in their test of press freedom since the Press Freedom Index 's introduction, stating that the ruling Kim family control all of
2352-540: A police state. This concept can be viewed as a balance or scale. Along this spectrum, any law that has the effect of removing liberty is seen as moving towards a police state while any law that limits government oversight of the populace is seen as moving towards a free state . An electronic police state is one in which the government aggressively uses electronic technologies to record, organize, search and distribute forensic evidence against its citizens. Early forms of police states can be found in ancient China. During
2450-409: A profile in the Country Party. With the support of local federal member and shire council chairman Sir Charles Adermann and state opposition leader Sir Frank Nicklin , he gained Country Party endorsement for Nanango and was elected a year later at age 36, going on to give regular radio talks and becoming secretary of the local Nationals branch. He would hold this seat, renamed Barambah in 1950, for
2548-409: A reputation as a "law and order" politician with his repeated use of police force against street demonstrators and strongarm tactics with trade unions, leading to descriptions of Queensland under his leadership as a police state . Starting in 1987, this administration came under the scrutiny of a royal commission into police corruption and its links with state government ministers. Bjelke-Petersen
2646-593: A resounding victory, attracting 38.9 percent of the primary vote to give them exactly half the parliament's 82 seats, just one short of a majority. The Keith Wright-led Labor Party, with 44 percent of the vote, won 32 seats. The Liberals were decimated, losing all but eight of their 21 seats. Bjelke-Petersen openly urged Liberals to cross the floor to the Nationals in hopes of getting an outright majority. Just three days later, two Liberals—former ministers Don Lane and Brian Austin —took up Bjelke-Petersen's offer and joined
2744-478: A system of rural malapportionment later nicknamed the " Bjelkemander ", which allowed him to remain premier despite frequently receiving a smaller number of votes than the state's two other major parties. The system earned Bjelke-Petersen the nickname "the Hillbilly Dictator". Regardless, he was a highly popular figure among conservative voters and over the course of his 19 years as premier he tripled
2842-494: A thousand university students marched towards the Brisbane city centre to demand better allowances from the federal government. Police stopped the march in Coronation Drive and television cameras captured an incident during the confrontation in which a police inspector struck a 20-year-old female protester over the head with his baton, injuring her. When Police Commissioner Ray Whitrod announced he would hold an inquiry,
2940-503: A victory for the forces of corruption, but said he had decided to quit rather than tolerate further political interference by the premier and new Police Minister Tom Newbery. Whitrod said Queensland showed signs of becoming a police state and he compared the growing political interference in law enforcement to the rise of the German Nazi state . Whitrod was replaced by Assistant Commissioner Terry Lewis , despite Whitrod's warning to
3038-540: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Joh Bjelke-Petersen Defunct Defunct Sir Johannes Bjelke-Petersen KCMG (13 January 1911 – 23 April 2005) was an Australian politician. He was the longest-serving premier of Queensland , holding office from 1968 to 1987 as state leader of the National Party (earlier known as the Country Party). Bjelke-Petersen
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3136-456: Is in very, very good hands." Labor leader Tom Burns said the closure of parliament showed "that no rules exist in the state of Queensland." In a fortnight of political crisis, Bjelke-Petersen defied an ultimatum by Liberal parliamentarians to accept their leader in Cabinet, prompting White to tear up the Coalition agreement and lead the Liberals to the crossbench. Watching with satisfaction as
3234-545: Is perceived to have implemented the tools of a police state after passing the National Security legislation in 2020 , following repeated attempts by People's Republic of China to erode the rule of law in the former British colony. Fictional police states have featured in media ranging from novels to films to video games. George Orwell 's novel 1984 describes Britain under the totalitarian Oceanian regime that continuously invokes (and helps to cause)
3332-463: The 1964 Haitian constitutional referendum , he declared himself the president for life through a sham election. After Duvalier's death in 1971, his son Jean-Claude (Baby Doc) succeeded him as the next president for life, continuing the regime until the popular uprising that had him overthrown in February 1986. Ba'athist Syria under the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad has been described as
3430-514: The 1969 Queensland election , with the state's system of electoral malapportionment delivering the Country Party 26 seats—a third of the parliament's 78 seats—from 21.1% of the primary vote, the Liberals taking 19 seats from 23.7% of the vote and the Labor Party's 45.1% share of the vote leaving it with 31 seats. Further controversy followed. In June 1970 it was revealed that a number of Queensland government ministers and senior public servants, as well as Florence Bjelke-Petersen, had bought shares in
3528-482: The 1972 Australian federal election under Gough Whitlam —the Country-Liberal coalition gained another comprehensive win at the 1972 Queensland state election : Bjelke-Petersen's party took 26 seats with 20% of the vote, the Liberals took 21 seats with a 22.2% share and Labor got 33 seats from 46.7%. It was the first state election to be fought following a 1971 electoral redistribution that added four seats to
3626-426: The 1974 Queensland election for 7 December, declaring it would be fought on "the alien and stagnating, centralist, socialist, communist -inspired policies of the federal Labor government". The premier visited 70 towns and cities in the five-week campaign and attracted record crowds to public meetings. The result was a spectacular rout for the Labor Party, which was left with just 11 of the legislature's 82 seats after
3724-412: The 1977 Queensland election , 400 demonstrators were arrested in what a Melbourne newspaper called "Joh's War". Aided by an electoral redistribution that removed two Liberal-held seats, the Nationals won 35 out of 82 seats, compared with 24 for the Liberals and 23 for a resurgent Labor Party. It was the first time in Queensland political history the Nationals had outpolled the Liberals. Bjelke-Petersen used
3822-631: The Russian Tsardom in 1565 functioned as a predecessor to the modern police state, featuring persecutions and autocratic rule . Nazi Germany emerged from an originally democratic government , yet gradually exerted more and more repressive controls over its people in the lead-up to World War II . In addition to the SS and the Gestapo , the Nazi police state used the judiciary to assert control over
3920-562: The South Australian cabinet without interruption from 1938 to 1965, served longer as a federal or state cabinet minister. Nicklin retired in January 1968 and was succeeded as Premier and Country Party leader by Jack Pizzey ; Bjelke-Petersen was elected unopposed as deputy Country Party leader. On 31 July 1968, after just seven months in office, Pizzey suffered a heart attack and died. Deputy Premier and Liberal leader Gordon Chalk
4018-479: The Uniting Church Synod called on the government to change the march law, Bjelke-Petersen accused the clergy of "supporting communists". His attack sparked a joint political statement by four other major religious denominations, which was shrugged off by the premier. The government's increasingly hardline approach to civil liberties prompted Queensland National Party president Robert Sparkes to warn
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4116-551: The downfall of the Whitlam federal government ), political longevity, and the institutional corruption of his government. Bjelke-Petersen was born on 13 January 1911 in Dannevirke , a town in the North Island of New Zealand. He was the second of three children born to Maren ( née Poulsen ) and Carl George Bjelke-Petersen. His parents were both Danish emigrants to Australia; his mother had arrived in Queensland as
4214-668: The "Australian Conservative Alliance", also known as Australia First , in 1995. After two years since his ousting as Leader of the National Party , former Queensland Premier , Sir Joh , announced the launching of a new conservative political party, the Australian Conservative Party , in front of one-hundred people in Hervey Bay , Queensland . He created the party alongside Lin Powell . Joh for Canberra This Australian government-related article
4312-609: The Coalition (until the parties merged) since 1925. In 1963 Nicklin appointed Bjelke-Petersen as minister for works and housing, a portfolio that gave him the opportunity to bestow favours and earn the loyalty of backbenchers by approving construction of schools, police stations and public housing in their electorates. At various times, he also served as acting minister for education, police, Aboriginal and Island Affairs, local government and conservation and labour and industry. He would serve in cabinet without interruption until his retirement in 1987. Only Thomas Playford IV , who served in
4410-508: The Country Party lost a by-election in the Gold Coast seat of Albert , prompting several nervous MPs to make plans to oust Bjelke-Petersen and replace him with deputy leader Ron Camm . Bjelke-Petersen spent the night and the next morning calling MPs to bolster support, surviving a party room vote by a margin of one, after producing a proxy vote of an MP who was overseas and uncontactable. Plans by dissident Country Party members to support
4508-434: The Country Party out of the Coalition unless he became Premier. After seven days Chalk accepted the inevitable, and Bjelke-Petersen was sworn in as Premier on 8 August 1968. He remained Police Minister. Within months of becoming premier, Bjelke-Petersen encountered his first controversy over allegations of conflict of interest. In April 1959, while still a backbencher, he had paid £ 2 for an Authority to Prospect, giving him
4606-450: The Liberal Party engaged in vitriolic infighting, Bjelke-Petersen called an election for 22 October , claiming: "I really believe we can govern Queensland in our own right." The campaign coincided with the launch of an "official" Bjelke-Petersen biography, Jigsaw , which lauded him as a "statesman extraordinaire" and "protectorate of Queensland and her people". Further rubbing salt in the wounds of his former coalition partners, his campaign
4704-459: The Liberals in Cabinet, this time demanding that the seven Liberal ministers sign a coalition agreement in which they promised unquestioned allegiance to Cabinet decisions. The move turned the Nationals' 35 votes to a guaranteed majority of 42 in the House, effectively neutralising any potential opposition by the 15 Liberal backbenchers. Bjelke-Petersen began making appointments, including judges and
4802-553: The Nationals in return for seats in cabinet. With Lane and Austin's defections, the National Party was able to form a majority government for the first time at the state level in Australia. In 1984 Bjelke-Petersen was created a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) for "services to parliamentary democracy". Author Evan Whitton suggests the premier had made the nomination himself. In 1986 Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke discontinued knighthoods in Australia and it
4900-587: The Police Minister that he was corrupt. In 1977, Bjelke-Petersen announced that "the day of street marches is over", warning protesters, "Don't bother applying for a march permit. You won't get one. That's government policy now!" Liberal parliamentarians crossed the floor defending the right of association and assembly. One Liberal MP, Colin Lamont, told a meeting at the University of Queensland that
4998-528: The Premier's financial involvement in the companies at a press conference in March 1969, where he asserted Bjelke-Petersen had gained "fabulous wealth" from the £2 prospecting authority, which had now mushroomed into Exoil shares worth AU$ 720,000. Bjelke-Petersen said he had done nothing wrong, but resigned his directorship of Artesian in favour of his wife. The Country-Liberal coalition was returned to power at
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#17327804429865096-486: The Premier. Bjelke-Petersen praised police for their "restraint" during the demonstrations and rewarded the police union for its support with an extra week's leave for every officer in the state. He described the tension over the Springboks' tour as "great fun, a game of chess in the political arena". The crisis, he said, "put me on the map". The following May—six months before the Labor Party's landslide victory at
5194-594: The Queensland Cabinet met to pass a " flying minute " and advised the Governor, Sir Colin Hannah , to issue writs for five, rather than six, vacancies, denying Labor the chance of gaining Gair's Senate spot. The intention was to have Gair's seat declared a casual vacancy, allowing Bjelke-Petersen to fill the vacancy until the next election. Labor argued that Gair's appointment, and hence his departure from
5292-411: The Springboks' visit to Queensland. The football game was played to a crowd of 7000 behind a high barbed-wire fence without incident. The state of emergency, which gave the government the appearance of being strong-willed and decisive, helped steer the government to victory in both by-elections held on match day. Police Special Branch member Don Lane was one of those elected, becoming a political ally of
5390-485: The aforementioned Muslim Brotherhood), leading to accusations that it has effectively become a "revolutionary police state". The USSR was described as the largest police state in history; modern-day Russia and Belarus are often described as police states. The dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos from the 1970s to early 1980s in the Philippines has many characteristics of a police state. Hong Kong
5488-452: The beginning of the 20th century it has "taken on an emotional and derogatory meaning" by describing an undesirable state of living characterized by the overbearing presence of civil authorities. The inhabitants of a police state may experience restrictions on their mobility , or on their freedom to express or communicate political or other views, which are subject to police monitoring or enforcement. Political control may be exerted by means of
5586-519: The chairmanship of the Totalisator Agency Board , that had traditionally been the domain of Liberal ministers, and accusations arose of political interference and conflicts of interest as mining contracts, casino licences and the rights to build shopping complexes were awarded to business figures with National Party links. Accusations of political interference also arose when police released without charge TAB chairman Sir Edward Lyons,
5684-477: The elimination of political exchange, limiting freedom of speech, abolishing the right to strike, freezing wages". The Republic of Cuba under President (and later right-wing dictator) Fulgencio Batista was an authoritarian police state until his overthrow during the Cuban Revolution in 1959 with the rise to power of Fidel Castro and foundation of a Marxist-Leninist republic . Following
5782-521: The end of 1978, both the state Liberal and Labor parties had new parliamentary leaders—the fourth Labor opposition leader during Bjelke-Petersen's reign and the third Liberal leader. Florence Bjelke-Petersen was elected to the Senate in October 1980 as a National Party member and six weeks later Joh was successful for a fifth time as premier at the 1980 Queensland election , with the Nationals converting
5880-664: The failed July 1958 Haitian coup d'état attempt to overthrow the president, Haiti descended into an autocratic and despotic family dictatorship under the Haitian Vodou black nationalist François Duvalier (Papa Doc) and his National Unity Party . In 1959, Papa Doc ordered the creation of Tonton Macoutes , a paramilitary force unit whom he authorized to commit systematic violence and human rights abuses to suppress political opposition, including an unknown number of murders, public executions, rapes , disappearances of and attacks on dissidents; an unrestrained state terrorism . In
5978-412: The family's newly acquired second property. His efforts eventually allowed him to begin work as a contract land-clearer and to acquire further capital which he invested in farm equipment and natural resource exploration. He developed a technique for quickly clearing scrub by connecting a heavy anchor chain between two bulldozers . By the time he was 30, he was a prosperous farmer and businessman. Obtaining
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#17327804429866076-456: The government would believe the police and claiming the public clamour was "all part of an orchestrated campaign to legalise marijuana and denigrate the police". In defiance of the premier, Whitrod went ahead with an inquiry anyway and on 16 November ordered summonses be issued against four police officers on more than 25 charges, including arson. He chose the same day to announce that he was quitting his post. Whitrod claimed his resignation marked
6174-406: The government; one of them, Cairns lawyer Sir Thomas Covacevich, was a fundraiser for the National Party. The malapportionment meant that a vote in the state's west was worth two in Brisbane and the provincial cities. A University of Queensland associate professor of government described the redistribution as "the most criminal act ever perpetrated in politics ... the worst zonal gerrymander in
6272-434: The governments of South Africa and Rhodesia and from 1977 proposed Queensland secede from Australia and establish its own currency. He also accused political opponents of being covert communists bent on chaos, observing: "I have always found ... you can campaign on anything you like but nothing is more effective than communism ... If he's a Labor man, he's a socialist and a very dangerous man." Three weeks before
6370-446: The history of the world" and the most serious action of Bjelke-Petersen's political career. Police state A police state describes a state whose government institutions exercise an extreme level of control over civil society and liberties . There is typically little or no distinction between the law and the exercise of political power by the executive , and the deployment of internal security and police forces play
6468-480: The knowledge that they had the Premier's backing, police officers continued to act provocatively, most notably in a military-style raid on a hippie commune at Cedar Bay in Far North Queensland late the following month. The police, who had been looking for marijuana, set fire to the residents' houses and destroyed their property. Bjelke-Petersen rejected calls for an inquiry into the raid, declaring
6566-522: The legal capacity to appropriate funds for government business and leading to his dismissal as Prime Minister. During the tumultuous election campaign precipitated by Whitlam's dismissal by the governor-general John Kerr , Bjelke-Petersen alleged that Queensland police investigations had uncovered damaging documentation in relation to the Loans Affair . This documentation was never made public and these allegations remained unsubstantiated. Queensland
6664-510: The media to emphasise a distinctive Queensland identity he alleged was under threat from the "socialist" federal government. The Queensland government bought a single-engine aircraft for the Premier's use in November 1971, upgrading it to a twin-engine aircraft in 1973 and even bigger model in 1975. Bjelke-Petersen, a licensed pilot, used it often to visit far-flung parts of the state to campaign and boost his public profile. In April 1974, in
6762-567: The media. In response to government proposals to enact new security measures to curb protests, the AKP -led government of Turkey has been accused of turning Turkey into a police state. Since the 2013 removal of the Muslim Brotherhood -affiliated former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi from office, the government of Egypt has carried out extensive efforts to suppress certain forms of Islamism and religious extremism (including
6860-456: The most "ruthless police state" in the Arab world ; with a tight system of restrictions on the movement of civilians, independent journalists and other unauthorized individuals. Alongside North Korea and Eritrea , it operates one of the strictest censorship machines that regulate the transfer of information . The Syrian security apparatus was established in the 1970s by Hafez al-Assad , who ran
6958-467: The next 40 years. The Labor Party had held power in Queensland since 1932 and Bjelke-Petersen spent eleven years as an opposition member. On 31 May 1952, Bjelke-Petersen married typist Florence Gilmour , who would later become a significant political figure in her own right. In 1957, following a split in the Labor Party, the Country Party under Nicklin came to power, with the Liberal Party as
7056-494: The number of Country/National voters and doubled the party's percentage vote. After the Liberal Party pulled out of the Coalition government in 1983, Bjelke-Petersen reduced his former partners to a mere eight seats in an election held later that year. In 1985 Bjelke-Petersen launched a campaign to move into federal politics to become prime minister , though the campaign was eventually aborted. Bjelke-Petersen earned himself
7154-620: The oil search authority to Artesian for £2; the consent was given a week later. When the Taxation Commissioner ruled that the £12,650 windfall from the £2 authority was a taxable profit, Bjelke-Petersen appealed, eventually taking the matter to the High Court . The appeal was dismissed, with Justice Taylor ruling that Bjelke-Petersen's six million percent gain from the £2 authority arose from "a profit-making undertaking". In 1962 Artesian transferred its Authority to Prospect to
7252-409: The parliament and created four electoral zones with a weightage towards rural seats, with the result that while Brisbane electorates averaged about 22,000 voters, some rural seats such as Gregory and Balonne had fewer than 7000. From 1971, under the guidance of newly hired press secretary Allen Callaghan, a former Australian Broadcasting Corporation political journalist, Bjelke-Petersen developed
7350-403: The party that it was developing a dangerous "propaganda-created" ultra-conservative, almost fascist image. He told a party conference: "We must studiously avoid any statements or actions which suggest an extreme right-wing posture." Bjelke-Petersen ignored the advice. He condemned the use of Australian foreign aid to prop up communist regimes, urged Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser to stop criticising
7448-507: The party's strength to move key Cabinet posts that had long held by the Liberals into the hands of National Party ministers. In October 1978 thousands of demonstrators again attempted to defy anti-march laws with a protest march in Albert St, Brisbane, which was again repulsed by police lined five deep. In a Brisbane byelection a month later National Party support slumped to just 10 percent, half of what party strategists had expected. But by
7546-400: The police state became far more wide-reaching than its predecessors. In addition to strict censorship and the burning of all political and philosophical books, the state implemented strict control over its population by using collective executions and by disarming the population. Residents were grouped into units of 10 households, with weapons being strictly prohibited, and only one kitchen knife
7644-409: The population from the 1930s until the end of the war in 1945. During the period of apartheid , South Africa maintained police-state attributes such as banning people and organizations, arresting political prisoners , maintaining segregated living communities and restricting movement and access. Augusto Pinochet 's Chile operated as a police state, exhibiting "repression of public liberties,
7742-517: The premier was engineering confrontation for electoral purposes and was confronted two hours later by an angry Bjelke-Petersen who said he was aware of the comments. Lamont later said he learned the Special Branch had been keeping files on Liberal rebels and reporting, not to their Commissioner, but directly to the Premier, commenting: "The police state had arrived." When, after two ugly street battles between police and right-to-march protesters,
7840-433: The public float of Comalco , a mining company that had direct dealings with the government and senior ministers. The shares finished their first day of trading at double the price the ministers had paid. Bjelke-Petersen again rejected claims of a conflict of interest, but the Country Party state branch changed its policy to forbid the acceptance of preferential share offers by ministers or members of parliament. In October,
7938-466: The resulting media coverage. Bjelke-Petersen began regular media and parliamentary attacks on the Whitlam Labor government, vowing to have it defeated, and he and Whitlam exchanged frequent verbal barbs, culminating in the prime minister's 1975 description of the Queensland premier as "a Bible-bashing bastard ... a paranoic, a bigot and fanatical". The pair clashed over federal plans to halt
8036-491: The right to search for oil over 150,000 square kilometres (58,000 sq mi) near Hughenden in far north Queensland. The next month he incorporated a company, Artesian Basin Oil Co. Pty Ltd, of which he was sole director and shareholder, and the same day entered an agreement to sell 51% of the company's shares to an American company for £12,650. The following day he sought the consent of Mines Minister Ernie Evans to transfer
8134-601: The royal commission; the jury failed to reach a verdict as the jury foreman was a member of the Young Nationals and a member of the "Friends of Joh" group, and Bjelke-Petersen was deemed too old to face a second trial. During the Bjelke-Petersen era the state underwent considerable economic development. He was one of the most well-known and controversial figures of 20th-century Australian politics because of his uncompromising conservatism (including his role in
8232-477: The rule of King Li of Zhou in the 9th century BC, there was strict censorship, extensive state surveillance, and frequent executions of those who were perceived to be speaking against the regime. During this reign of terror, ordinary people did not dare to speak to each other on the street, and only made eye contacts with friends as a greeting, hence known as '道路以目'. Subsequently, during the short-lived Qin Dynasty,
8330-578: The sale of Queensland coal to Japan , take over the administration of Aboriginal affairs, remove outback petrol subsidies and move the Australian border in the Torres Strait southwards to a point midway between Queensland and Papua New Guinea . Bjelke-Petersen also vehemently opposed the Whitlam government's proposal for Medicare , a publicly funded universal health care system. The battles helped to consolidate Bjelke-Petersen's power as he used
8428-413: The seats of Nanango (1947–1950) and Barambah (1950–1987). Bjelke-Petersen was appointed as a government minister in 1963 and succeeded as premier and Country Party leader in 1968 following the death of Jack Pizzey . He would lead the party to seven consecutive election victories, governing in coalition with the Liberal Party until 1983. His first three electoral victories saw his party benefit from
8526-456: The senate, was effective from no later than when the Irish government accepted his appointment, in March. This was a matter of protracted debate in the Senate over many days, and was never resolved, but it was rendered irrelevant when Whitlam called a double dissolution of both Houses, in an election gamble he only narrowly won. In October 1974 Bjelke-Petersen called an early election, setting
8624-446: The state. In the week before the match, 40 trade unions staged a 24-hour strike , protesting against the proclamation. A crowd of demonstrators also mounted a peaceful protest outside the Springboks' Wickham Terrace motel and were chased on foot by police moments after being ordered to retreat, with many police attacking the crowd with batons, boots and fists. It was one of a series of violent attacks by police on demonstrators during
8722-474: The tax. To help compensate for lost revenue, the government introduced football pools ; four years later the government granted a casino licence on the Gold Coast , although this too was mired in allegations of corruption and favouritism. Issues of police powers and civil liberties , first raised at the time of the 1971 Springboks tour, resurfaced in July 1976 with a major street demonstration in which more than
8820-479: Was allowed for 10 households. Spying and snitching was in common place, and failure to report any anti-regime activities was treated the same as if the person participated in it. If one person committed any crime against the regime, all 10 households would be executed. Some have characterised the rule of King Henry VIII during the Tudor period as a police state. The Oprichnina established by Tsar Ivan IV within
8918-501: Was boosted by the support of prominent Liberals from other states including Tasmanian premier Robin Gray and former Victorian and NSW premiers Sir Henry Bolte and Tom Lewis . The Nationals also poured significant resources into Brisbane-area Liberal seats, seeing a chance to not only win government in their own right, but destroy their former Liberal partners. Three months before his 73rd birthday, Bjelke-Petersen and his party recorded
9016-591: Was born in New Zealand's North Island to Danish immigrant parents. His family moved back to Australia when he was a child and settled on farming property near Kingaroy, Queensland . He left school at the age of 14 and went into farming. Bjelke-Petersen was elected to the Kingaroy Shire Council in 1946 and to the Queensland Legislative Assembly at the 1947 state election . He would serve in state parliament for over 40 years, holding
9114-590: Was largely in response to Bjelke-Petersen's knighthood. When Liberal Prime Minister Tony Abbott brought back knighthoods in 2014 he insisted that politicians would not be eligible citing Sir Joh as a reason for the ineligibility. In 1985 Bjelke-Petersen unveiled plans for another electoral redistribution to create seven new seats in four zones: four in the state's populous south-east (with an average enrolment of 19,357 electors per seat) and three in country areas (with enrolments as low as 9386). The boundaries were to be drawn by electoral commissioners specially appointed by
9212-431: Was ousted in a party room coup by Terry White , who had long advocated a greater role for the Liberals in the Coalition. Bjelke-Petersen refused to give Edwards' old post of deputy premier to White, choosing instead to adjourn parliament—which had sat for just 15 days that year—declined to say when it would sit again, and insisted he could govern alone without the need of a coalition, commenting: "The government of Queensland
9310-522: Was renowned for being the lowest taxed state in Australia for much of Bjelke-Petersen's tenure. Over heated objections by Treasurer Gordon Chalk, Bjelke-Petersen in 1977 announced the removal of state death duties , a move that cost his state $ 30 million in revenue. So many New South Wales and Victorian residents sought to establish their permanent address in Queensland as a result, boosting state coffers with stamp duty from property transactions, that other states followed suit within months and also abolished
9408-523: Was sworn in as caretaker premier until the Country Party could elect a new leader, with Bjelke-Petersen as deputy premier. The Country Party had 27 seats in Parliament; the Liberals had 20. Nonetheless, there was some dispute over whether the Liberals should take senior status, which would have made Chalk premier in his own right. Matters were brought to a head when Bjelke-Petersen—elected Country Party leader within days of Pizzey's death—threatened to pull
9506-400: Was unable to recover from the series of damaging findings and after initially resisting a party vote that replaced him as leader, retired from politics on 1 December 1987. Two of his state ministers, as well as the police commissioner Bjelke-Petersen had appointed and later knighted, were jailed for corruption offences and in 1991 Bjelke-Petersen, too, was tried for perjury over his evidence to
9604-551: Was used in reference to the use of a national police force to maintain order in the Austrian Empire . The German term Polizeistaat came into English usage in the 1930s with reference to totalitarian governments that had begun to emerge in Europe. Because there are different political perspectives as to what an appropriate balance is between individual freedom and national security, there are no objective standards defining
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