Joh For Canberra - The Lead-up To The Campaign

The Lead-up To The Campaign

Joh Bjelke-Petersen was first elected to the office of premier of Queensland in 1968. Although he came close to being ousted from office in 1970, he went on to become the longest-serving premier in Queensland history and was returned to office convincingly in several elections in the early 1980s. In 1983 and 1984, he had communicated his interest in challenging what he saw as a dangerous push towards socialism within the Hawke Labor government. The federal election of 1983 brought Bob Hawke and the Labor Party to power. Bjelke-Petersen and Queensland National Party president Robert Sparkes spearheaded a conservative backlash against Hawke based in Queensland. The aim of this conservative movement was to "dismantle Labor's 'socialist' legislation, including Medicare, support Queensland-style free enterprise and introduce a flat-tax system". In the aftermath of the 1984 Queensland election, the National Party was able to govern in its own right for the first time, while the Queensland election of 1986 saw the Nationals attain a record 55% of the seats in Queensland parliament. The idea of Joh Bjelke-Petersen becoming prime minister was first explicitly discussed by Gold Coast businessmen Brian Ray and Mike Gore, along with Bjelke-Petersen himself, in autumn 1986. Gore would later claim that Bjelke-Petersen was initially reluctant to pursue a position in federal politics. However, according to Ray, Bjelke-Petersen expressed initial enthusiasm for the idea and had to convince Ray and Gore of its merit. The initial base of the "Joh for Canberra" campaign was made up of a group of Queensland businessmen nicknamed the "white shoe brigade" who had enjoyed substantial patronage from the Bjelke-Petersen government. Despite Bjelke-Petersen's insistence that his campaign was driven by popular enthusiasm, the base of support for the "Joh for Canberra" campaign was always quite narrow. In the 1984 federal election, the National Party had polled only 10.63% of the vote and won 21 seats, compared to 45 for the Liberal Party and 82 for Labor. In 1987, John Howard and Ian Sinclair were poised to lead the Liberal and National parties respectively into the 1987 election against Labor's Bob Hawke. Bjelke-Petersen believed that Howard and Sinclair had drifted too far from their conservative principles and stood no chance of defeating the Labor Party in the election. Bjelke-Petersen's confidence had been bolstered by several convincing wins at the state level. After his decisive victory in the 1986 state election, Bjelke-Petersen became the "superstar of non-Labor politics in Australia", though his support was concentrated in rural areas and on the far right of the political spectrum. This momentum gave Bjelke-Petersen a feeling of invulnerability and the mistaken belief that the dynamics of Queensland politics could be replicated at a federal level.