All language subtitles for revealed.joh.last.king.of.queensland.2025.1080p.web.h264-interestingmelodicflounderofbloom

- Okay.

- Get the other speaker
quickly. This one isn't working.

- [Crew] Move the speaker.

- I can't hear a thing.

Can you hear me now?

- [Crew] Yes.

- [Joh] Yeah, good.

- [Crew] We need
a bit more level.

- [Joh] Great.

- It's breaking up.

- [Crew] Hello. How's
the our level for you?

- [Joh] One, two. Oh,
the level is excellent.

Perfect.

- [Crew] Well, we
definitely need a bit more

from your end.

- [Crew] Sorry about
that. Haven't got sound.

Just say something.

- Hello? How's that?

Can you hear me?
- I've lost sound.

- Well obviously what he's got

isn't working up there.

Could you fix it please?

- Can you fix it?

- Okay?

Good.

- Get me an earphone.

- [Crew] Ah, that was it.

Can we have another
count, please?

- Yes. One, two, three, four.

- Ah, loud and clear.
Very well done.

- [Matthew] He was almost
the premier by accident,

certainly not a born politician.

- And we're meeting the man
who's the longest serving

and certainly the most
controversial premier

this country has ever known.

I'd like you to welcome
from our Brisbane studio,

the Premier of Queensland,
Mr. Joh Bjelke-Petersen.

Give him a big welcome.

(audience clapping)
- Thank you very much.

- Who's Joh?

Do you really want to know?

Who's Joh?

- I don't think he was
a grand master genius

that planned and plotted.

I think he was one of those
guys that successfully bumbled.

- I think Joh was
a force of nature.

He was... He was God.

And Joh, of course,

saw himself as being
on a mission from God.

- Joh is God.

To hell with that,

the trees and animals were
our religion before Joh came.

- Joh was a very boring,
mundane character.

- This may surprise you,
but he had charisma.

- He was a patriot.

I mean, he believed
in Australia,

particularly the Queensland
version of Australia.

- Power-hungry.

- Dictator.

- I think I respect him
more than anybody else

I've ever met.

- I thought he was an
absolute corrupt bastard.

- No, but he represented
the mindset of the state.

- He was a complete dead shit,

and the world is
better off without him.

- The crazier things
got, the vote went up.

- Well, he wasn't
Rudolph Valentino

in the looks department.

He couldn't string three
coherent words together,

but he was an innovator.

- And a real country man.

- Looking back, in many ways,

Joh wrote the
playbook for Trump.

- It's like, well, he
made no sense back then,

so how can you explain him now?

- Joh was this crazy politician

who was in Parliament
for 40 years

and Premier of
Queensland for 19,

and he was called a
Bible-bashing bastard.

The hillbilly dictator.

He spoke really strangely
in press conferences,

but was a cunning old guy.

He tried to run for Prime
Minister of Australia,

but lost.

He was accused of corruption
but never convicted,

and apparently when he was
voted out by his own team,

he locked himself in his
office and wouldn't come out.

(dramatic music)

- [Broadcaster] Good evening

on this historic day
in Queensland politics.

There is absolute
confusion, chaos and turmoil

in the government.

What we can say for
certain is this.

The Premier, Sir Joh,
is still Premier,

but isolated, and
refuses to resign

to make way for the new regime

elected unanimously by
National Party MPs today.

- [Matthew] Bjelke-Petersen
had locked the doors.

He refuses to budge.

- [Reporter] Well, yes,
he's still in his office

at the executive building.

He is a bitterly
disappointed man.

- [Matthew] Joh was not
accepting, could not accept,

he is not the king anymore.

The crown has been
wrested off him.

(dramatic music)

- You think this bothers me?

I'm Joh Bjelke-Petersen,
Premier of Queensland,

servant of the people.

No, no, no.

What did Matthew say?

Verse seven, don't throw
your pearls to pigs.

They'll tear you all to pieces.

You think I care with
all your hullabaloo?

I've had prime
ministers in here.

I've had presidents
sitting right there.

I built this place.
I built Queensland.

You want me, you know
where I am, right here.

(dramatic music)

Old Joh the ghost.

(dramatic music continues)

- [Matthew] It's almost
impossible to believe

that all of this
actually happened,

and all began in Bethany.

- My grandfather
chose the name Bethany

because it means
a place of rest.

This is where he was
coming back to recuperate

to start a new life
here with my father.

He had to milk the cows,

help his mother milk the cows.

His father couldn't do manual
work, so it fell onto him.

So he would help in the morning
before he went to school,

and then in afternoon when
he came home from school,

he'd have to go through
the same process again.

- I think the hardship
taught him to be self-reliant

from a very early age.

It just became part and
parcel of who he was,

that he became a problem solver.

If something didn't work,
he would have to fix it.

He was a doer.

- [John] My grandfather
being a pastor

wasn't paid a
great deal of money

and thought his health might
improve, but it didn't.

- In some ways he had
a broken education,

but Dad was just too much
needed on the property.

- Time and again,
they've wondered this,

how come old Joh
was so successful

when he left school so young?

They'd tie themselves
up in riddles

time and time again
over that one.

Well, I'm here to tell you,

there's more to
learning on a farm

than any of your fancy places
like Oxford University.

Mother used to say the
proof's in the pudding.

The proof's in the pudding.

Well, I'm it.

- He had a chip on his
shoulder to some degree.

He had a need to
constantly prove himself,

not just to his past,
but to his present.

(energetic music)

- He's a social isolate,
doesn't drink, doesn't smoke,

doesn't go to the pub, doesn't
date girls, doesn't dance.

He would have actually conducted
his own daily devotions,

so he would have actually
read his Bible, prayed,

and then he would have
gone out into the field

and basically hacked down the
scrub for most of the day.

- Well, a lot of the area
had just been opened up

then for selection.

It had to be cleared.

It was just handwork by axe,
and it was very hard going.

There were no big machines
when they all settled here.

That sort of came
later, 20 years later.

- [John] So it was
in the early '30s

that he brought
his first tractor.

- He went to the bank
and wanted to buy

a 10-20 McCormick-Deering
tractor.

Bank manager looked him up
and down as much as to say,

"Well, where'd you get
that silly idea from?"

But he prevailed.

They might've thought it
was crazy at the time,

but he had a next-door
neighbour or someone saying,

"I'll give you 20 pound
to plough out 20 acres."

- So ultimately, the people

who'd come to have a
look at this tractor,

they all said to him,

"You're mad. You're
going to go broke,"

were the ones that ultimately
paid for the tractor.

- And the contract
business started up

and I think he would work
from sunup to sundown.

- In fact, I'm told, well,
I know those old tractors

didn't have a
generator and lights.

- So the next thing he
devised was some headlights.

- So as he could
plough into the night.

- There was a problem,
he used to be able

to find a way to solve it.

(energetic music)

- I came up with this idea

of dragging a big anchor
chain between two bulldozers,

and gee whiz, if they
didn't come down right away

and stay down.

You could hear the dozers and
the glorious crack and snap

of that brigalow a mile away.

Let me tell you,
it was like music,

the Grey Wood and wattle
flowers coming down.

If progress had a
sound, that was it.

Nothing was more satisfying.

- [Matthew] I mean,
imagine the noise.

It must've been cataclysmic.

The sound of chains ripping
through ancient forest.

It must've been like a monster.

- [John] That's where
my father made his money

opening up vast areas of
land out on the downs.

- And he was in demand for this.

This was the guy
that can flatten

hundreds, thousands of
acres quickly, efficiently.

If you needed it,
you called Joh.

(dramatic music)

- [John] And a lot of those
people that he worked for

were the ones that encouraged
him to get into politics.

They thought he
would do a great job

of representing them.

(gentle music)

- Before Joh came on the scene,

Queensland was
controlled and owned

by the Australian Labour Party.

The unions were big.

Brisbane at the time was
very small, comparatively.

It's a big country town
they used to call it.

But right up the coast, the
east coast of Queensland,

were substantial cities
in their own right,

20,000 population-plus.

From Gympie to Maryborough

to Bundaberg to Gladstone
to Mackay to Rockhampton

to Townsville to Cairns.

So it was decentralised

because of the pre-mechanisation
rural workforce.

- Well, Joh Bjelke-Petersen
always presented himself

as a kind of reluctant
entrant into politics,

and in fact, there's
a bit of a wowser

when he comes into Parliament.

- Well, Bjelke-Petersen
joins Parliament in 1947

and he's not making
much of a splash,

but he's kind of biding his time

and waiting for an opportunity.

- I guess he would have
picked up a few clues

as to how Queensland
governments generally operated.

Queensland was in
the unusual situation

of having only one
House of Parliament,

so scrutiny of government
was very limited.

- [Matthew] He was
this sort of wallflower

observing and absorbing.

To me, he was an odd-bod from
the day he entered Parliament.

(gentle music)

- Around the time that
Joe enters parliament,

he also learns to fly.

Obviously, the roads
and that sort of thing

weren't that crash-hot
back in that time,

and so to drive back from the
electorate down to Brisbane

to go to Parliament
and that sort of thing,

he did I think the
first couple of years,

and then he would
fly down to Brisbane

and avoid all those potholes.

- He could fly to Brisbane
and get there much quicker.

The train actually
took a long route.

You nearly had to go
up through Maryborough.

- It was four days, I
think, to use the train.

- It was a long time and the
roads were just terrible,

and Dad was always a person
who wanted to do things

as quick as you could.

- I believe that Dad
was on a deputation

to the Main Roads Commissioner,

and Mum was the secretary

to the Main Roads Commissioner.

She came in to take shorthand,

and some of the other ladies
after that, everyone had left,

said to Mum,

"Joh Bjelke-Petersen is single
and he's got lots of money."

- And he's got loads of money.

You'd better get to know him.

- You should marry him.

- So Dad actually asked Mum
about going to the movies,

but Dad had never
gone to the movies

and actually was a bit
suspicious of girls

that liked to go to the movies,

because Dad was in
his late thirties,

which in those
days was considered

almost past getting married,

so it nearly all didn't happen.

- [John] He would have actually
had a very solitary life

up until then,

and so meeting
Florence was actually

quite a transformative
experience for him.

But Flo also, she had

a very conservative
theological outlook with Joh,

and they were married in 1952.

(energetic music)

- [Frank] Well, the Labour
Party across the country

had great turbulence
in the 1950s,

and it did split
in several states.

The Queensland split
was rather distinctive.

It happened later in 1957.

- And the Labour Party split

brought the Country Party and
the Liberal Party to office

as a new coalition government.

Frank Nicklin was the
leader of the Country Party

at the time.

- It has been a
quarter of a century

since Queensland has had
a change of government,

and I feel that a change is
going to be of great benefit

for the state and its people.

- Dad was, I guess,
using his plane

to help Sir Frank Nicklin out
in flying around the state.

- Well, there's
nothing you can tell me

about the meaning of hard work.

I've done it all my
life, never complained.

"Leave it to Joh,"
they always said.

"He'll get it done."

It's probably why Frank
Nicklin, when he became Premier,

he always had me running
around on errands.

"Joh, could you
head up to Cairns

and help out our
Country Party candidate?

He needs a hand."

"Joh, could you get
out west of Charleville

and set straight our candidate?

He's a good fellow,
but he needs a leg up."

Well, that was me,
because Frank knew

that I never said
no to hard work.

- [John] So Joh does a lot
of the hack work till 1963

when the premier, Frank
Nicklin, appointed him

as Minister for
Works and Housing.

- Joh said that the
boys, as they all were,

came to me like bees
round a honeypot

because everyone wanted
something in their electorate,

a new station, or a new
school, or public housing.

- [John] Joh was off and running

providing his Country
Party colleagues

with roads and
hospitals and so on,

and they were indebted to him.

- [Rae] And it allowed him
to create a favour bank.

(gentle music)

- [Paul] It would be
very difficult for
Joh Bjelke-Petersen

not to have been aware of
corruption in the police force

to some extent,

given his position
as a politician,

but also as a cabinet minister
in the Nicklin government.

- And it was the
Nicklin government

which appointed Frank Bischof
as Commissioner of Police.

And that may well
have been the genesis

of what became
organised corruption,

not just a sling or
a bribe on the side,

but organised corruption
by the coppers themselves.

- Frank Bischof was one
of the best detectives

that Brisbane had ever seen.

In terms of solving
murders especially,

he had a great record.

And he knew how to pick people

who weren't just good
at being corrupt,

but were good at being
police officers, as well,

because that's how
he made his career.

- So during that period,
Bischof perfected

an early version of
the corrupt system

that became known
later as 'The Joke'.

- The police were allowing
corrupt behaviour.

They all agreed that
prostitution was a
victimless crime.

You can't stop it, it
needs to be controlled,

and you need to be
able to control it

so you don't have drugs.

As a result, they received a
cash payment from the brothels

to pay them for the
time that they spent

outside of their hours
protecting the setup.

That's why it was The Joke.

The Joke was, we're getting
paid to protect prostitution.

(energetic music)

- [Rae] In 1968, Nicklin retired

and was succeeded
by Jack Pizzey.

- I do know this, that
when Nicklin stepped down,

he didn't want Joh
to be the Premier,

and that's why Jack
Pizzey stepped in.

- Then within a
short space of time,

Jack Pizzey died,

and I think he died very
suddenly of a heart attack.

- The issue with Pizzey dying
was that there was no one

to replace him from
the Country Party.

- [John] Joh then
comes through the ranks

as the Country Party
candidate for Premier

calling on the votes of all

of the Country
Party good old boys

to whom he had provided
schools, hospitals, and roads.

- [Paul] But there
was actually moves

to try and work out a way
for Joh Bjelke-Petersen

not to become the premier

because people were
concerned about

what a Bjelke-Petersen
Premiership would look like

for Queensland.

- I can't -

How would you pick Joh
Bjelke-Petersen for politics?

He was a bit of a
lightweight, actually.

Well he was just hopeless,
I took one look at him

and thought, "That's the
end of the Country Party.

We're finished, gone forever."

- Joh was basically a farmer,

and they used to
come out all the time

saying he's a peanut farmer,

but I wasn't impressed at all.

- [Quentin] Now, when
he first became Premier,

a lot of people had
never heard of him.

- Yes, John, we've
been very happy.

I, of course, as you know,

have travelled up
and down Queensland

during the three years-

- And I would see him
on black and white TV

looking pathetic,

and I would think that
he wasn't going to last.

- [Rae] And there was a move
against him by the party.

They were fairly
confident of rolling him.

- So a number of his
colleagues came to see him

to say, "They've got
the numbers, Joh.

We're going to replace you,
and you should stand down now

and go peacefully."

Joh didn't go peacefully.

- And so when it looked like

they were going to
take it away from him,

I think that that
really showed the spirit

of Joh Bjelke-Petersen.

- [Scott] And what he did
was spend the whole night

ringing everyone around and
calling up all his favours.

- And he won that
with his votes,

and two forged proxies.

And they were of members
of the Country Party

who were on an overseas
delegation at the time,

and when they came back,
they were made ministers.

- He was very smart,
he was very cunning.

I think, wittingly or not,

I think he was
incredibly deceptive.

- Once upon a time,
somebody said to me,

"Joh, you're too
nice to be Premier."

Well, there's something
to say for that.

Let's make this clear.

Let's wash the mud off this.

I'm not a vindictive man.

I am a positive man, but
there's no way in the world

that I will let people
tramp on my toes.

See, for a long time there,
everybody that walked past me

in the political arena

gave me a good hard
kick in the shins.

And I realised, you've got
to look after yourself,

nobody else will.

So I came up with a
guiding principle.

You give me a problem,

I'll give you a bigger one.

You try me on, and I
will come back at you

bigger and stronger.

You take on Joh Bjelke-Petersen

and you've got a
fight on your hands.

- So I think the whole episode
shows a certain ruthlessness

and a great desire
to stay in office.

He wasn't going to
give up the premiership

for anything really.

- Frank Bischof had been
the police commissioner

for around about 10 years.

- Bischof is committed
to a hospital,

and was caught

naked in a closet at one point,

calling out that his
life is in danger

and people are
coming to get him.

So he has a mental
breakdown, essentially,

and is relieved of his
position as Commissioner.

- The police
minister at the time

was a guy called Max Hodges.

Max always told anybody
who would listen to him

in the corridors of Parliament

that he was worried
about the corruption

within the Queensland
Police Force,

and he wanted an
exterior appointment,

and he got Ray Whitrod
to come in and take over.

- Always known as Honest Ray.

He was a very bright
individual, multiple degrees.

Whitrod was up against it

from the minute he got
off the plane in 1970,

and discovered that the
vast bulk of officers

hadn't literally progressed
from schooling aged 12.

- Mr. Whitrod, what
information have you been given

about the Queensland
Police Force?

- Not a great deal.

I've had a chance to
talk to the minister,

and of course I've
read the newspapers,

and I've had some contact
with the Queensland Police

over the years.

- [Quentin] Needless to say
the police of Queensland

were very unamused by
an outsider coming in.

- [Paul] When Ray Whitrod
arrived in Queensland,

what he inherited was
the fact that Bischof

had strategically promoted
different police officers

into important positions,

and very well
liked and respected

within the Queensland
Police Force too.

And it became a
personal mission of his

to really take on this Rat Pack.

- [Matthew] Tony Murphy,
Glendon Patrick Hallahan

and Terry Lewis.

- [John] Terry Lewis of
course and the Rat Pack

were very much
opposed to Whitrod

and did everything they
could to undermine him.

- [Matthew] And
Whitrod faced years

of perennial white-anting.

Every decision he made,
there was opposition,

accusations against his
character, his leadership.

It was relentless.

(sombre music)

(film whirring)

- [Reporter] Do you or
any member of your family

hold any shares in Comalco?

- Well, in regard
to this question,

let us have first
things first also

and I'll answer that
question in a few moments.

To get the record
straight, let me ask you,

what's wrong with having shares
in either Comalco or Utah?

You tell me that.
What's wrong with it?

- [Quentin] Questions
started to be raised

about Joh's conflicts
of interest.

- A conflict of
interest? In which way?

- He wanted exploration licences
on the Great Barrier Reef,

and got them.

- Sir, could you
answer the question

about your shareholdings?

- Yes, I'm coming to that,
but I want to say this.

- Comalco issued mining
shares at low cost

and a number of
politicians took them up.

- Because you held shares
in a certain company,

would you say that this
could influence a decision?

I'm not saying would
it, but could it?

- It certainly wouldn't
influence any decision.

- [Reporter] Did you
receive any shares?

- [Reporter] Did you get
any Comalco shares yourself?

- Now, gentlemen, in reply, as
I said earlier this evening,

no, I have no Comalco shares
or Utah shares whatsoever.

My wife has shares in
both these companies

by entitlement and
by application.

- [Paul] People were concerned
that Joh Bjelke-Petersen

didn't play by the rules.

He was a rogue operator.

- [Reporter] You will
continue to hold shares

in public companies?

- I haven't done anything in
this particular issue at all

as you jolly well know.

- [Reporter] But you have
held shares in companies

which have dealings
with the public?

- If you're going to
try and misconstrue it

just for your own
political propaganda,

you've got another thing coming.

Cheers.
- Mr. Premier,

thank you very much.

- But he needed a diversion.

So the Springboks were coming

and that divided Australia

because there was great
concern all around the world

about the apartheid
regime in South Africa.

- So 1971, we had an all
white Springbok rugby team

visit Australia.

- There were protests
from the beginning

as soon as they arrived in Perth

because Australians
were quite enthusiastic

about trade boycotts
of South Africa

over the apartheid regime.

And so those
demonstrations occurred

as they made their
way around the coast.

(crowd jeering)

- What the Springboks
tour also shows

is it shows to the
protest movement

what they've been
ignoring for a long time,

which is actually the apartheid

that's happening
in their own state.

(gentle music)

- Yeah. I stayed in
Cherbourg all my life.

I was born in Cherbourg, in
reserves such as Cherbourg,

even Woorabinda.

They had signs outside to show

that you have to
have a piece of paper

to get into the community

or you have to get a
piece of paper to get out

or if you haven't that,
you got six months in jail

or $600 fine.

- The federal government
knew it had to do something

because it was
under UN scrutiny.

And in 1971, that's
when Joh Bjelke-Petersen

lost the ability to
hold anyone on a reserve

against their will.

There was a massive
influx off reserves,

not just pastoral properties,

but reserves into
Queensland towns and cities

for the first time
in colonial history.

And then white people
felt quite comfortable

writing to Joh
Bjelke-Petersen saying,

"We don't want them here.

They can't come to the pool."

But see, you had a
world anti-racism push

after World War II.

And there were a lot of white
people that fought as well.

There was civil rights
activists and things like that.

So the time was right.

- The beginning of the '70s,
we were having an effect.

We were all part of this
huge generational change.

And the fact that we're out
there marching in the streets

was part of that
generational change

that the mainstream
culture despised.

(crowd chanting)

- So there was a huge
movement growing.

(crowd chanting)

And we saw the worst, I think,
of Joh trying to stop that.

- Well, some problems
are clear cut.

You learn that on a farm.

You say your surface
water gets scarce,

well, you pump up
your ground water.

It's pretty straightforward.

And it is the same when the
Springboks came to town.

It was just another equation.
Just another equation.

They had a right to play rugby

and all the protestors
who tried to stop them

had no legal right to do so.

It was as simple as that.

And I declared a
state of emergency,

that it was my decision, and
we, yes, moved on from there.

I'd been Premier for
a few years by then

and I'd learned one thing.

You make a decision
and you get on with it.

That's what I did.

- [Paul] It was something
that was unprecedented.

It hadn't happened before.

- [Quentin] It was unbelievable.
Made world headlines.

- State of emergency
gives the right

for the Rugby Union to
use the exhibition grounds

to play the matches, on
which to play the matches.

- When the Springbok state
of emergency was declared,

I became involved in a group
of independent legal observers.

It wasn't a state of emergency

that was declared to deal
with a cyclone or a bushfire.

It was a state of emergency
called on by a Premier

who cynically used politics

to shore up his own then
somewhat tenuous grip

on his recently
obtained Premiership.

(dramatic music)

- [John] Joh did
everything possible

to facilitate that tour.

He brought in hundreds
of country cops.

- [Paul] So police from
all over Queensland

were basically rallied.

They were housed
at a military camp

and really getting
each other worked up.

And Joh Bjelke-Petersen openly
said he was giving police

a green light to do
what they needed to do

to keep security on the streets

and there won't be
any repercussions.

- Which meant it gave
police carte blanche

to do whatever
they wanted to you.

So we were very, very nervous.

- It became a major
political sideshow.

He took them on.
He took them on.

And, "Gee, that Joh,
he's got it all right.

He can take them on."

- # We shall not be moved #

- [Paul] So on the night
Springboks arrived,

they went to their hotel,
which was at the Tower Mill.

- I was on that hill.

We had the right to march
for that demonstration.

- Just be responsible
for a change.

(pair squabbling indistinctly)

- I was there that night as
part of the legal observer team.

Then Whitrod, who was
present at the scene,

gave a direction for
the protesters to
effectively move on.

- Now you must move
back off the road.

Otherwise we'll
have to move you.

- Step back.
- Please go back.

Move back. Move back.

(crowd jeering)

- They didn't. And
after that, the police

in effect took it
into their own hands,

chased protesters in the dark.

- [Raymond] And it
was just unleashed.

It was frightening.

- And the police were just
bashing people on the head

and we were trapped.

And it was massively brutal.

- [Quentin] Heads were
cracked by police batons.

- [Paul] And they had taken
off their badge numbers,

which is never a good sign.

- [Terry] A number of protesters
ended up with broken bones.

- [Paul] And people got
hurt. People almost died.

- [Terry] And particularly
to see the police

just disobey Whitrod's
command was an eye-opener.

- And I'll tell you this.

So the police were
absolutely outstanding,

and we worked hand in glove
with them and we got it done.

And they knew that
I supported them.

They knew that they could
trust me from that moment on.

It was a jolly good relationship
and we never looked back.

- [Paul] The Springboks
tour and its aftermath

showed Queensland that Joh
Bjelke-Petersen was somebody

who would push back threats,

which was what the activist
movement really represented

for Joh and for
many Queenslanders

who saw the state that
they had once knew

sort of slipping
away into modernity.

- A lot of people used to
say they felt safe under Joh,

which I know is a silly
thing perhaps to say,

but he was the sort of
person that radiated

that sort of -

That sort of comfort that
people did feel safe under Joh.

- I grew up in a very big
Joh supporter household.

My father in particular
was very much Team Joh.

And I grew up basically hearing
about him like he was a God,

like he was the model that
every politician should follow.

- [Norm] But he
could go somewhere

and he could read the
feeling of the people.

He just had that gift.

That's what he did have.

- [Amy] There is so
much love for Joh.

- [Norm] And he was
always very courteous.

- I was struck by his humility,
and it wasn't bunged on.

He just felt it was
naturally his job

to go and boil the billy
and make tea for people.

And Jesus told us to be humble

and he washed the
feet of the disciples.

And Florence, his wife, was
more unpretentious still.

- [Reporter] Back to
your scones, I think now.

- Oh, well, thank you.

We'll pop them in the oven
and we'll see what happens.

(dramatic music)

- Joh, of course,

was popular in
the country areas.

- [Amy] And I think what
Joh really tapped into

was that feeling
of being ignored

and just used up for their
resources and their labour

and everything else.

- (crowd chanting) We
want Joh. We want Joh.

We want Joh. We want Joh.

- [Amy] And he spoke in a way
that really appealed to them.

- From far away Canberra,

they have wrecked
far too much already.

They have wrecked everything
that they can lay hands on.

The mining industry,
ladies and gentlemen,

was booming and prosperous
until they came into power

and thousands of job
opportunities went by the board.

- He's the father of a
modern-day Queensland

because he had the
courage of his conviction.

He had the strength
and determination

to stand up and to be different.

- [Raymond] Under
Joh Bjelke-Petersen,

he was exporting an
idea of Queensland

that it was separate from
the rest of Australia.

He said, "We're not Australians.
We are Queenslanders."

- [Amy] And he told the nation
that it was not only okay

to be from Queensland,
in fact, it was better.

- [David] And what he was able
to do was galvanise support

by actually just
taking on Canberra

and making it a conflict.

- [Amy] Joh viewed
Canberra with contempt

and he hated that there
were politicians in Canberra

who could make decisions
that would impact

what he was doing in Queensland.

(crowd cheering)

- In 1972, the Whitlam
government was elected.

And from that point on,
a whole new image of Joh

developed as the strong
leader defending Queensland.

- [Matthew] So you had
a tall, hugely educated,

erudite individual with Whitlam.

- [Rae] And he made no bones
about being well-educated.

And Joh wasn't any
of those things.

- [Raymond] The new Labour
government under Gough Whitlam

sets to work with a huge
programme of reform.

And I mean, this would've set

Bjelke-Petersen's
alarm bells ringing,

all these things
that he did not like.

- [Paul] Funding the arts,
buying Blue Poles, painting,

having a royal commission
on human relationships.

- [Raymond] I can't
think of any areas

in which they actually agreed.

- I shall continue, continue
to fight to implement

our Labour programme.

- He clearly had no idea.

He just, "Oh, the poor people.
We'll give them money."

Well, you have to increase taxes

if you want to give them money.

You can't borrow.

And if you just borrow, you're
going to run away inflation.

- Can we assume that
the Labour Party

is nothing more than a
front for achieving the aims

of the communistic minority-

- [Host] Okay. I think we've
heard enough at that one.

Thank you very much.

- ... and the
destruction of Australia?

- Whitlam was labelled a
communist by Bjelke-Petersen

at various times.

- It's a situation where
people don't really know

even what communism is,

but it's to create
fear of the unknown.

"And I will save you.

I will protect you from
that threatening group."

- At this stage, what do
you see as the vital issues

in the next election?

- Oh, I think they're a
new deal in those things

which affect citizens closest.

For instance, education, health,

housing, transport,

the whole of the conditions
in which people have to live,

mostly in cities.

- There was a real reaction

against the Whitlam government

throughout rural areas.

- It's not hard
to evoke Canberra

as a big sort of monster

wanting to get their claws
into regional Queensland.

- We really needed Joh
to fight Whitlamism,

and so he became super hero.

- Would it be fair to
say that your relations

with the Prime Minister

perhaps don't even
exist at this time?

- I know Mr. Whitlam very well.

I've met him from time
to time over the years.

And I would say we are
quite good friends.

And we attack each other's
policy very strongly.

I always do and always
have and always will.

It's a centralist control,

and this is what we can't accept

because the honeymoon is over.

- Vincent Lingiari, I solemnly
hand to you these deeds

as proof in Australian
law that these lands

belong to the Gurindji people.

(audience clapping)

- So one of the promises
of the Whitlam government

coming to power

was to bring in
Aboriginal land rights.

- And Joh of course takes a view

that under no circumstance

would Indigenous people be
given land rights in Queensland.

- No one could
understand the concept

of Aboriginal land
rights, and if they do,

you can have the land
that's left over now-

- (chanting) Land rights.

- [Valerie] Because government's
about averting criticism

and getting re-elected.

It's not about
putting things right.

We expect government
to put things right,

but at the end of the day,
it's a settler colony.

I think Joh just was
a person in power

that got lots of
votes with the racist,

draconian views
that he espoused.

(crowd chanting)

- Well, I've travelled
the length and breadth

of this great state with
all its natural wonders

and rich with its resources,

and then along come these
extremist Aboriginals

with their sinister, radical
campaigns for land rights

who want to take the land
from under everybody's noses

and create a Black state.

Well, this has to be stopped.

This has to be stopped
giving away national assets

left, right and centre.

You want land, you buy
it like everybody else.

It's straightforward
as far as I could see.

In Queensland,
there's no such thing

as Aboriginal land
rights or mineral rights.

Queensland is for Queenslanders.

We treat Aboriginal and Islander
people exactly the same,

exactly the same as
everybody else up here.

And it couldn't be fairer.

Couldn't be fairer.

- Joh was nothing
other than reflecting

the absolute ignorant
attitudes of everybody.

It's populism.

Donald Trump is not
very different from
Joh Bjelke-Petersen,

in the sense what you do is

all of the things that
the public doesn't like,

you tell them you
don't like them either.

You tell them they're the enemy.

"Identify your enemy.

Run your war against the enemy,

against the communists,
against the socialists,

against the trade unionists,
against the activists.

Nip it in the bud.
Hit it with a hammer."

- The ALP team might
be on the march,

but it knows only one
step, left, left, left.

(crowd cheering)

- I mean, Whitlam thought
he was up against a buffoon

and a fool, and his natural
arrogance took flight.

He wasn't the sort of
bloke to see danger.

His ego was too great
to see the danger.

- Good evening.

Those were the scenes
outside Parliament House

during what could well have
been the roughest day ever

in the history of
Australian politics.

Gough Whitlam sacked, both
houses of Parliament dissolved

and a caretaker government
formed under Malcolm Fraser

until a general election
sometime before Christmas.

- The dismissal of 1975
divided the nation.

Whitlam underestimated
Bjelke-Petersen's

absolute determination
to get his own way

and paid the price.

- The people can speak.
The people can work.

And the people can vote.

(audience cheering)

- [Attendee] And they
want to keep it that way.

- [Amy] I mean, Joh was
going to come at Gough

in any way that he could

to try and find some
chinks in the armour.

And it was Joh who
pushed over that domino

that led to the fall of
the Whitlam government.

- Well, I think he's certainly
one of the progenitors

of the dismissal.

- Bjelke-Petersen was
certainly seen as a player

in the bringing down
of the government,

particularly through
his interference

with the composition
of the Senate.

- In 1975, Labour Senator of
Queensland Bert Milliner died,

and Joh introduced his
own candidate, Pat Field,

who was the head of the
furniture polishing union.

- [Frank] Albert Patrick
Field was indeed a member

of the Labour Party, but he was
an opponent of Gough Whitlam

and very hostile
to the Labour Party

as it was then governing
Australia from Canberra.

- No curbside interviews.
You know that.

- No curbside interviews?
- Yeah.

What do you want me to
say about Mr. Field?

- Well, he-
- Have you ever heard of him?

- Not until last week. Had you?

- Neither had I.

- And what do you think -
- And I've never met anyone

I think was absolutely
contemptible.

What makes it all
the more nauseating

is of course that
Mr. Bjelke-Petersen

is such a Bible-bashing bastard.

- That did not play
well outside Brisbane.

- And a lot of Queenslanders
thought that dismissal of Joh

was dismissing them as well.

- That was a slap in
the face to Queensland,

not just Bjelke- Petersen.

Bjelke-Petersen would've
absolutely loved that.

- Why do you think Mr.
Bjelke-Petersen has done it?

Just to spite you?

- I suppose that's the
only rational explanation,

but of course, the
man is a paranoic.

He is a fanatic. He's a bigot.

- [Reporter] Pretty
strong words, aren't they?

- Yes, well, the
actions, of course,

would justify stronger
words still, wouldn't they?

- The thing that can
be easily overlooked

with Bjelke-Petersen

is that he was an
extraordinarily vengeful person,

and that made him a very
dangerous politician.

- Well, I never hid my
opinions under a bushel

when it came to Mr. Whitlam.

His socialist agenda was

a very grave threat to Australia

and all the values we hold
dear, and he had to be stopped.

Make no bones about it.

His policies were
going to tear the heart

out of this country's
prosperity and freedom,

and something had to be
done and very quickly

before his poison had
a chance to spread.

The federal opposition
didn't have a clue

how to handle Mr. Whitlam.

They couldn't contain him.

So I decided to do it myself.

I stepped up and I did what I
had to do as a good Australian

and a good Christian.

Who else was going to do it?

(film whirring)

- [Broadcaster] This
is the latest roundup

from the Triple Z newsroom.

- Right at the end of
Whitlam's Prime Ministership,

there was a push to grant a
whole series of public licences

around the country to
various radio stations.

And Triple Z was one of them.

The thing about
Queensland at that time

was that there was really no
alternative media to speak of.

- Triple Z, because it
started on the campus

of the University of Queensland,

was embedded in protest culture.

They were the ones who
were leading the charge.

- [Speaker] 4ZZZ don't
stick to the rules

of Joh's media management.

Joh famously said that
working with the media

was like feeding the chooks.

All you had to do was
give them some feed

and they'd run off
and report on it.

Triple Z didn't do that.

(gentle music)

- Well, in Cedar Bay in 1976,

that afternoon, the
Telegraph newspaper

had a banner headline,

"Police bust hippie drug
commune in North Queensland."

But then 4ZZZ started
to run interviews

with some of the residents
of the Cedar Bay commune.

- [Resident] I was just
lying in bed asleep

and all of a sudden the
helicopter started coming over

early in the morning,
about six o'clock.

- And Triple z ended up being
a really important kind of

counter narrative to
what was going on.

(gentle music)

- [Bill] Cedar Bay was a
beautiful, isolated stretch

of coastland north of Cairns.

- [Andrew] And that was to be
redeveloped as a major resort,

but nobody knew about this
hippie colony as such.

But Joh's government did and
they wanted to get them out.

- On the 29th of August, 1976,

the Queensland Police Force
conducted a military-style raid

on Cedar Bay.

There was over 30 police
officers involved,

indigenous trackers.

- Helicopters and
inflatable boats,

and there was gunfire.

- [Bill] The people that were
living there were arrested

and tied to coconut trees

and the police officers
set about setting alight

some of the hippies' dwellings.

- [Andrew] Joh thought being
in far North Queensland

in August, no one
would know about it.

Except ZZZ had a member
of their news team there,

they heard about this,
and they broke the story.

- [Bill] And it became a
bit of a political fiasco.

- [Joh] I didn't think
there were any houses there.

There may have
been a few gunyahs.

I've seen these sort of
things up in the north.

- [Reporter] Oh, certainly.
They're very humble shelters.

I agree with you.
- Yeah. Humble.

I've said some of the places

I wouldn't even tie my
dog up in some of them.

That's what I've
seen of some of them

up there in the north.
- But haven't these people

got a right to live
as they choose?

- [Joh] Well, I think that
there were a lot of aspects

there about it that you
ought to know, Andrew,

that you wouldn't live there.

- [John] This caused quite
a furor in the media,

and Whitrod ordered an
inquiry, which Joh closed down.

- I mean, this business
of demanding an inquiry

at this point of time

before there is the evidence
necessary to justify it,

well, this is why Cabinet made
the decision that they did.

- [Bill] And the police
were never held to account.

- [Paul] That pushed
Whitrod over the edge.

Since the Springboks tour,

Joh Bjelke-Petersen had been

stepping all over
Whitrod's authority.

- [John] Whitrod said,

"Well, I'm not going to
tolerate interference

in my responsibilities as
commissioner," and he resigned.

- [Quentin] It was at that
time that Whitrod realised

that he'd lost control
of the police force

and told the media at his
resignation press conference

that Queensland was being
turned into a police state.

- I was not prepared
to be merely a front

for other people's decisions
in areas of my responsibility.

The only way I couldn't draw
attention to this situation

was by resigning.

- [Reporter] Is there widespread
corruption in the force?

- It depends upon
your point of view.

- [Reporter] What's
your point of view?

- I don't want to
answer that question.

- And Whitrod fled
Queensland rapidly,

literally in fear for his life.

- And the story is told
that a furniture van

containing his effects and
a number of his papers,

some of which were quite
incriminating apparently,

crashed and burned
in a road accident

on the way to South Australia.

- And then when
Whitrod resigned,

Joh turns to Terry Lewis,

this guy who he'd just made
Assistant Commissioner,

and he says, "Actually,
you know what?

You can be commissioner now."

- Even though all the
folklore was that Terry Lewis

was a member of
Bischof's Rat Pack.

- [Reporter] What was your
relationship with the Rat Pack?

- Well, it's a
funny term that one,

because I suppose if we
look back far enough,

that was one I think
that was used in relation

to Frank Sinatra, if
we look back that far.

- [Reporter] For example, I
might be more specific if I may-

- Yes. Very well.

- [Reporter] It's been
suggested that you've

at some stage in your
career been on the take,

that you've been a bag man.

- Well, it's certainly
all foreign to me,

the validity of this.

(tense music)

- The relationship between
Lewis and Bjelke-Petersen,

it's a very symbiotic
relationship.

Bjelke-Petersen put Lewis as
the head of his police force

so that Lewis would always
support Bjelke-Petersen

in whatever endeavours he
tried to bring forward.

- In October, 1977, the
premier came into parliament

with an amendment
to the Traffic Act,

saying the now infamous words,

"The day of the political
street march is over."

- [Paul] And he said,

"We won't be issuing any
more permits for protests,

and if you try to have one,

then we're going to crack
down with the police

for the full force
of their authority."

And Terry Lewis was willing
to go along with that,

for lack of a better term,
because he owed him one.

And in return, what Terry Lewis
gave to Joh Bjelke-Petersen

was essentially an
army that were willing

to carry out his
ideological agenda.

- Well, I'm a simple man.

Things are pretty
black and white to me,

which is why all the hullabaloo

over the crackdown on
street demonstrations

was such a load of nonsense.

"Oh, Joh's denying our civil
rights, our freedom to protest,

to express our opinion.

He's a dictator in jackboots."

Load of rubbish.

You know what this was?
Pure, pure and simple.

Disrupting traffic. Yes.

Especially during the afternoons

when the school kiddies were
trying to get home from school,

which is when the mobs would

hold their so-called protests.

What about normal
people's rights?

Police Commissioner
Lewis got it,

and so did the
people of Queensland.

It was black and white.
It was law and order.

And if you don't like it,
you know what you can do.

- Myself and other lawyers
and legal observers

in effect said, "What
have we come to?"

(dramatic music)

- You know, on the BBC, I
saw 700 people protesting

with two and a half thousand
cops kind of controlling them

and a pregnant woman being
hit in the head with a baton.

- You'd see tonnes of cops
facing you, just facing you,

and it was whether or not you
wanted to be the front line.

And then you could
decide whether or not

you were going to run

or you were going to stay
and hold your position.

- [Paul] In trying to
ban street marches,

he radicalised so
many more people

who might not have participated
in other demonstrations,

but they sure as hell wanted

to still have their
freedom of speech.

- We all supported each
other in every march.

So the unionists would
turn out for the women,

the women would turn
out for the unionists.

- [Paul] It didn't matter
what you were protesting for.

The right to protest
being taken away

was a problem for everybody.

- You know, there
were priests there

and all of these older people

and then all of us ragtag
lot all in there as well.

And the power that you felt
being in that group shouting,

"Joh must go, Joh must go."

Yeah.

- And it also split
the community in two

in that you had a
conservative mainstream

and you had a fighting
left, the progressives,

who could see what was happening

and who knew that it was
wrong, that it was immoral.

- The young, the unemployed,
hippies, gays, students;

Joh didn't like any of them,

and he used his police force

to go and beat
them up basically.

#'Pig City' - The Parameters #

- I can't almost explain it.

When punk hit Brisbane, there
was a political edge to it

that there wasn't in
Sydney and Melbourne.

(aggressive music)

# You go downtown, just beware #

# Pig city #

- The police in
Sydney and Melbourne

weren't busting punk gigs.

But in Brisbane it was like,

"God, they're going to
take over in a city hall.

It's the end of civilisation.
Red alert, everyone."

- The cops would be
coming during the gig.

We'd know, we'd see
them amassing outside.

So we knew that when
the gig was over

and we were leaving, that people
were going to be arrested.

- Why are you doing this?

People are hiring a hall, a
couple of punk bands play.

What's the problem?

- I mean, it was horrible,
but it made the movement

far more magnificent.

And it was all political.

This system was well
and truly fucked

and we were living under it,

and we had to do
something about it.

# Go to a dance
to have some fun #

# Pig city #

# Here come the boys with
their dogs and guns #

# Pig city #

# They don't like punks #

# Run, Johnny, run #

# Pig city #

- And I think that
was the thing of Joh.

Overreaction, overreaction.

- [Lindy] There was
no future in Brisbane.

There simply was no future.

How could your work progress
in a town like that?

- You know, it's very easy
with the passage of time

to forget how appalling
a place it actually was

for creative people.

You have a section
of the community

that is coming down the
Pacific Highway to escape

and a parallel highway that
are moving into the spaces

they have vacated.

- People, of course,
were coming up

from the southern states,

coming up from
Melbourne and Sydney

because it's a low-tax state.

- My father got rid
of the death duties,

and ultimately this
state grew from that,

because people from down south

where death duties were
still in place at that time,

people with money or near it,

or had retired or whatever else,

they flocked up here.

- [Frank] So the
abolition of death duties

was meant to benefit
certainly the rural community,

and particularly farmers

passing property on
through inheritance,

and the fact that it was
followed by the other states,

of course increased
his prestige.

- And I sort of think that
with what Sir Joh did there,

if he hadn't had done it,

I don't think anyone
else would have done it,

because no government likes
to lose a source of revenue.

- [Frank] Queensland seems to be

the centre of
things economically,

and Joh seems to be
at the centre of the
Queensland economy,

making things happen.

- [Bob] It was extraordinary.

I mean, to take Australia

from being arguably a
coal-importing country

and turn Queensland into

the biggest coal-exporting
state on earth.

- [Frank] I mean, this is
the period where coal really

begins to overtake wool

as Australia's most
lucrative export.

- I'm not saying Joh
did it by himself,

but Joh deserves the credit.

And good on him, you know?

I mean, we're not here
to play Tiddlywinks.

- [Raymond] One of the
problems with it, of course,

is that the companies that
were operating in Queensland

were all overseas companies

and they took most of the
profit out of the state.

- Australia's economy
has been carried by coal.

And if you like it or don't
like it, I don't care.

Right?

You have to live with
the fact that it was us,

the people that backed
Bjelke-Petersen and
believed in him,

that were responsible for you

being able to buy a
motorcar from overseas;

which is about everything
you buy from overseas now,

but you would have no money to
buy that if it wasn't for us.

- Bjelke-Petersen
was a smart-arse,

but he was smart for his people.

He was clumsy on humanity.

He was clumsy on the earth.

He fucked up the
rivers, brother.

He buggered up all
the bloody rivers

and diverted them into dams.

That's what he'd done.

All these destruction
things today

were done in a
way of for profit.

- Look, Joh's superpower
was to cut through.

And he did it in
such a simplified way

that it was beautiful
in execution and
beautiful in outcome.

- Well, to me, he
was very effective

because he got things done.

And I have to say that the
thing that I liked best

about dealing with him is that
he made a decision quickly.

- [Andrew] And that when
you're in government,

that's the power you have.

Simply get on with
the job and do it.

- My young lad, John, was
home at Bethany one weekend

and one of the tractor
tyres was flat.

Well, he stood there
for ages staring at it.

Couldn't work it out
for the life of him.

A head full of thistle soup.

"What do you think
you're doing?" I said.

"It's not going to fix itself.

You'll be there dreaming
in a month from Sunday.

Get stuck in."

I said, "Get her up on the
jack, take the tyre off

and get the tube out, take her
into town and get her fixed.

Don't think about
it too much, John."

And that's always
been my philosophy.

You get cracking.

- But Joh was the powerful
man who was the Premier

who could make a decision
about whatever he wanted to.

Yeah, he didn't have respect
for the Westminster system.

Joh had this concept
of democracy that,

"I've been voted for.

I should be able to
do whatever I want."

- Mark my words.

I have seen my
fellow politicians

up and down the
length of this country

stand and stare at a
flat tyre like John.

Where would Queensland be today
if I'd taken that attitude?

Up the creek, I can tell you.

- I mean, he believed
that he had absolute power

to make whatever decision was
not illegal for him to do.

- In a pre-dawn move today,

demolition teams destroyed
one of Brisbane's

most well-known landmarks,
Cloudland Ballroom.

In a surprise move
apparently intended

to forestall complaints
from conservationists,

workmen moved in with heavy
equipment about 4:00 AM.

- The destruction of those
old buildings under Joh

made me furious.

It showed you how easily
things that you loved

could be taken from you.

- [Broadcaster] In
little more than an hour,

the distinctive
Cloudland shell dome

had disappeared from
the city's skyline.

(gentle jazz music)

- [David] And once
those places are gone,

it's like someone's
died, really.

It's just a feeling of
overwhelming sadness.

(gentle jazz music)

- That was one of our
very few big venues.

And what's there
now? Apartments.

He destroyed so much.

- In a way, it was his way of
saying he didn't need to care

what anybody else thought.

I remember somebody telling me

it was real dick
on the table stuff.

- [Matthew] Queenslanders
liked a show of strength

in their leader.

The sight of a crane
meant progress.

- [Norm] He used to come
down to the Gold Coast

and he used to count all
the cranes in the sky.

And he used to look around

and he used to go to
various developments there.

He was very, very proud
of what he believed

he had created.

- [Edwina] In many ways,

Joh had hypnotised the
majority of the state.

- But he made it easier
for business to survive,

and that's why he won
election after election.

- I don't really know
how he hypnotised people.

I think because he
seemed unbeatable.

- [Announcer] The
Premier of Queensland,

Joh Bjelke-Petersen.

- [Edwina] Because no matter

how many times you
voted against him,

he came back.

He was like Freddy
Krueger. Unkillable.

- Oh, it often felt utterly
hopeless, and you would think,

"How long is this
going to continue?

It's just getting
worse and worse."

- I think by that point in time,

after what would have
been about 15 years

of conservative
rule in Queensland,

it was a feeling of
despair that the tyranny

was seemingly going on forever.

There had been
elections where Joh

had manipulated the
gerrymander into his favour

so that he was reclaiming
power election after election.

- [Raymond] In Queensland,

gerrymander means you
set up the electorate

so that the rural
voters have more votes

than the city voters.

- God bless you.
- Thank you.

Thank you very, very much.

- Joh was only there because
of the electoral system.

He was only there because
of the electoral system.

If we'd had equal
representation in parliament,

he wouldn't have
been the premier

for all that length of time.

- [Raymond] So to me,
it was like a facade

propping up an
authoritarian regime.

- Well, goodness gracious me,

they went on about this
so-called gerrymander thing

until they were blue in the face

the whole time I was Premier.

"It's a conspiracy. It's unfair.

Joh has rigged the election."

Let me tell you straight.

When I first entered
parliament after the war,

you didn't hear a peep about
any gerrymander the whole time

because all of
those country seats

were held by Labour people.

Not a word.

I led the national party
to victory in those seats

because I got off my
backside, hopped in a plane,

and I was up and down and back
and forth across Queensland

like a dragonfly.

Those people in the back box,

they told me that they felt

as if they had been
forgotten about.

Well, you call it a gerrymander,

I call it hard work
and smart politics.

- Bjelke-Petersen is the
equivalent of a redback spider

in the underpants of society.

He thought he was the
king of Queensland.

He thought that he could
run the state in any way

that he saw fit.

Cloaked himself in a garment
of so-called Christianity

and then destroyed people.

- [Matthew] Everything
with Joh is like a fight.

If there are strikes
from the unions,

he's going to fight them.

By the mid 1980s
throughout Australia,

the new right, as it was called,

seemed to be very
much on the march,

and one of their central
ideas is that unions

had too much power.

And the SEQEB dispute was
about the government's efforts

to replace union labour

within the electricity authority
in Southeast Queensland

with contract labour as
a way of saving money.

- [Dick] The longer
the dispute went on,

the longer people
were without power.

Of course people
were getting angry.

- Don't let union leaders
wreck your livelihood.

All they are doing is
inflicting unnecessary harm

on the community.

And who pays for all this?

The answer is simple.
You will have to pay.

- [Dick] And the government

basically criminalised
the strikers.

(strikers chanting)

- [Reporter] Until today,

the demonstrators
have been passive.

This was different.

(protestor yelling indistinctly)

- [Dick] There was 1,020
who were actually sacked.

- [Reporter] They're
dismissed, are they?

- They're dismissed. Of
course they're dismissed.

They dismissed themselves.
I didn't do it.

I warned them for day after day.

You can't do more
than that, can I?

- [Raymond] With the SEQEB
dispute, he had said,

"The days of union
power are over.

I am using this dispute

to crush trade unionism
in Queensland."

- People committed suicide

during the course
of that dispute.

Families were split.

- Scab!
- Scab!

- Scab!
- Yes.

- [Striker] Hope you choke
on your dinner, you grub!

- Better hold that
job, you scab.

You won't get another one.

- Scab!

- Am I bitter about it?

Absolutely I'm bitter about it.

- [Norm] Joh had to make
difficult decisions there,

because people were hurting.

Food was going bad
in the supermarkets.

- Then I think to myself,

"My word, we've got to
continue to work hard."

We've all of us got to
give everything we've got

so that we can get back
on a stable government,

so we can get Australia
back up on its feet again,

ladies and gentlemen.

We've been knocked right over.

- [Norm] And he seemed

to tackle situations
like that head on.

So there's no doubt about it.

He was certainly
the man in charge.

- We feel he's a
very honest man.

- I like him because
he's a Christian.

He stands for the
things that are right.

- [Frank] And it
turned Bjelke-Petersen

into a kind of heroic figure,

and it set him up for another
major election victory

the following year.

- There'll be no strikes.
The power will stay on.

The lights will stay on.

(audience cheering)

- [Raymond] But as we
see the story unfolding,

when he reaches the
zenith of his power,

which is the 1986 election,

the seeds of his destruction
are already in place.

- What's your dream?

How much do you
dream your dream?

If your business
collapses, that's sad.

If your dream collapses,
that's a tragedy.

- [Paul] And so Joh
Bjelke-Petersen decides

that he's going
to make an attempt

from outside federal parliament

to run to become the prime
minister of Australia.

- Because this is the launching
today of a very big campaign

that will go from one end
of Australia to the other

as the days and the weeks
and the months go by.

- With the Joh for PM campaign,

I think some of the first
questions asked were, "Why?"

- [Raymond] He felt
he was riding so high

that he could take
over the country.

- This is crazy.

- [Frank] However, a group
of Gold Coast businessmen

often called "the
white shoe brigade"

would take credit for
planting this idea.

- [Raymond] At the
time they believed

they really could pull it off.

- [Quentin] What was
the delusion was,

he built his political base

on the fact that we
Queenslanders don't
like you bastards

in Canberra or New South
Wales or anywhere else.

We're Queenslanders.

- [Frank] Bjelke-Petersen
continued to use

the same old rhetoric, "Those
socialists in Canberra."

But ordinary voters looked
at Hawke and they asked,

"So where's the socialist?"

- [David] Joh didn't
understand federal politics.

He just thought he
could run some slogans.

He was going to dismantle
the socialist legislation

of that terrible Labour
Party and save the country.

- [Frank] He wants
to make the country,

the whole country of Australia,
more like Queensland.

He sees the free
enterprise policies

that he believes that he's
pursuing in Queensland

as the salvation of the country.

- [David] His belief in himself

and what he could achieve,

he was ... He had no
doubt about himself.

(spiralling music)

- Isaiah said it best.

"What will you do on
the day of reckoning?

Run for help? Leave
your riches behind?"

He said,

"We will cringe
among the captives

and fall among the slain."

Now, I'm a positive person,

but that day is coming
for this country.

When I ran for PM, it
wasn't about ego or glory.

Not on your nelly.

Everybody misunderstood
this about me at the time.

We were on a slippery slope.

Why did I do it?

To clean up the
disastrous political mess

we were sliding
into as Australians.

I could see the big picture.

I saw catastrophe coming.

And in all good conscience,
I had to try to do something.

Hawke had fooled
the lot of them.

He fooled the lot.

He tricked them into
looking the other way.

They couldn't see
what I could see.

And nobody ended
up caring anyway.

Well, that day of
reckoning is on its way,

and it will be here
sooner rather than later.

- [Frank] The Joh for PM
campaign is deeply disruptive

to the coalition in Canberra.

The Liberal Party leader,

the leader of the opposition
at the time, was John Howard.

- [John] Oh, look.

It was very frustrating
at the time,

but he showed appalling
political judgement

in imagining that his
ludicrous Joh for PM campaign

could have come off.

- [Quentin] But
it was impossible

to ask Howard to stand aside

and let Bjelke-Petersen
from Queensland take over.

But he did. He tried.

- [Andrew] What it does, of
course, is it actually breaks

John Howard's first attempt
to become Prime Minister.

- [John] And I can understand
that. Politics is like that.

You get somebody who grabs
the microphone and says,

"I know how you feel
and how you're hurting."

- I'm in the business of
defeating the Hawke government

and we're going to beat
the daylights out of them

on the 11th of July.

- And a lot of people would
say, "You'll listen to Joh?"

and I'd say, "Yeah,
but do you really think

we can win by destroying
the Federal Coalition?"

"Oh, no. Joh won't do
that." Yeah, well, he did.

- [Frank] And Hawke
called an early election

and the Labour
government was able

to basically point to
the opposition and say,

"They can't run themselves.
Don't let them run the country,"

and it worked.

- [Reporter] A
jubilant Bob Hawke

claiming Labor's third
historic victory.

- [Reporter] At Southport,
Sir Joh formally announced

what must rank as one of the
most humiliating back-downs

in Australian politics.

- But I want to say
today that time beat me.

We have a Prime Minister
in Canberra who lied.

(billiard balls clanking)

- [Paul] So the Joh for PM
campaign wasn't just a disaster

on a political level.

It was also really problematic

because at that very
critical moment,

his eyes weren't on the ball.

His mind was elsewhere.

- I heard a leak

from a Canberra-based
police intelligence person,

and he told me a story
about a friend of his

who was an undercover
officer in Queensland

who'd been offered a bribe.

No surprise there.

But what was
different about this

was that the bribe had
come from a superior.

So there was an indication,

an early indication of
systemic corruption.

I found my way to Queensland,

I met that undercover
police officer.

His name was Jim Slade.

- When I first
met Chris Masters,

it was the last bloody thing
that I would have done,

especially in my position.

I was an undercover
intelligence officer.

No one knew that I was a
police officer for eight years.

Even my neighbours didn't know
I'd been a police officer.

So when I sat down with
Chris Masters at a hotel bar,

I felt very, very uneasy.

- I'll never forget the meeting.

He wasn't earning
a lot of money,

but he didn't want to
take the corruption money

that was coming his way.

- [Jim] And as a result
of that, I was ostracised.

A car couldn't come
into our driveway

without me pulling a firearm,

thinking that it was
someone coming to get me.

My dog was poisoned.

My bedroom where my children
sleep was smashed with a brick.

That was what fucking did it.

I wasn't going to be part

of being a member
of a police force

that couldn't abide by
someone telling the truth.

I had to do something.

I had to do
something for myself.

I had to do something
for my family.

I had to do something
for the police force.

And that was what it was.

I sold out all my mates
and went to a journalist.

(dramatic music)

- [Andrew] I remember
sitting around the television

with the entire family when
"The Moonlight State" aired.

- Thanks for joining me.

- And we were all riveted by it

and there was a sense
that after this,

surely, everything changes.

And it turned out to be true.

(dramatic music)

- [David] To actually
see people on camera

finally telling the truth,
it was just extraordinary.

- [Blair] We knew how
corrupt this government was.

We knew how corrupt
this police service was.

We knew how corrupt

the then-Sir Terrence Lewis
police commissioner was.

We knew all this.

And then the response by
Joh's deputy, Bill Gunn,

Joh, again, was away.

- [Quentin] The pressure
was on Gunn to do something.

- Anyway, Gunny, he rang me
up at midnight and he said,

"We've got a corrupt
police force,"

and I said, "I know."

And he said, "How do you know?"

"How do you think I know?"

"They have a go at you? "Yeah,
why don't you come to me?"

No, because you couldn't
get close to him, Bill.

- There's been a series
of police ministers

that have had this
hanging over the head.

And it's not going to hang
over my head, I can tell you.

I'm going to go out and
I'm going to get it done.

- He called the Fitzgerald
inquiry without consulting Joh.

- And I said, "Well, Joh's
not going agree to that."

He said, "Joh's away."

I said, "He's sure going to
be unhappy when he gets back."

He said, "Too fucking bad.

He should have done something
about it before this

and he hasn't."

- [Quentin] So
Gunn looked around

and appointed a QC,
Tony Fitzgerald.

And with a very short time,

the whole politics of
Queensland changed.

- [Frank] It felt like
the spell was broken.

As much as he'd like
to use the old methods

of closing down an inquiry
which had worked before,

Bjelke-Petersen is no longer
in control of the story.

- Well, the obvious question

that people are
asking themselves,

thanks to all this
Fitzgerald inquiry business,

is if there was so much
corruption going on

under every nook and cranny,

then how did the premier
not know about it?

Well, listen to
me very carefully.

I did not know about any of it.

And to understand
how I didn't know,

you need to understand
how government works.

A government is very much like

one of those big anchor chains

that I used to
clear the Brigalow.

A chain has dozens of links,

hundreds that go way
back into the past.

And also, how long is the chain
and how far back does it go?

And perhaps these are
the sort of questions,

well, that defy answers.

- [Matthew] What's fascinating
to me is how quickly

the House of Cards fell.

And within weeks you have these
extraordinary allegations.

- [Paul] Political corruption,

corruption in the
corporate world,

corruption in the
judiciary as well.

- [Matthew] The Joke is exposed.

- [Paul] There
were question marks

about some of the
infrastructure projects

and construction projects

that Joh had really
pinned his legacy on.

- [Matthew] It was jolting
every day of the week.

Queensland was reeling
from the revelations.

- Sir Terrence, do you think
you have anything to fear

from the ongoing prosecution?

- Well, I shouldn't have

unless they display
a biassed attitude

and want to justify their
great amount of money

that's been spent.

- [Jana] So you don't
expect to be charged

with any offence?
- I shouldn't be, no.

- You think the inquiry's
been a waste of time?

- To some extent, yes.

- Sir Terrence,
thanks for your time.

- Thank you.

- [Quentin] It's important
to remember that Fitzgerald

didn't make any
declarations of corruption.

But ultimately, Sir Terrence
Lewis was convicted and jailed

and stripped of his knighthood.

(dramatic music)

- I wish to announce to
the people of Queensland

that I've decided to retire
on the 8th of the 8th, '88.

The date will mark
20 years as Premier.

- [Paul] Now at this time,
that still would have put on

almost about a year that he
would have had left in office.

But by that point, the
Fitzgerald inquiry,

with more and more
revelations of corruption

coming out day after day
after day in the press,

it became unsustainable
for the party to allow Joh

to go out on his own terms.

- So Bjelke-Petersen's
solution was a typically

ruthless, mean one.

He'd sack five ministers.

- [Reporter] Gunn, Ahern,
Austin, Munson, and McKechnie.

- [Frank] He goes off to the
governor, Walter Campbell,

and asks for those five
ministers to be sacked.

- That didn't work.

A day later, he asked
the Governor-General

to sack three of his ministers.

That succeeded, but by then
the party had had enough.

- What happened was Joh was
stabbed in the back, right.

- They turned on him.

- But still, Joh didn't give up.

In fact, one of his last
grasps to keep that power

was to ignore the
Nationals entirely

and turn to his arch nemeses,
the Labour Party, and say,

"Hey, why don't we
all come together

and I'll be your premier?"

- Ask the other members

because there's nothing
to raise about it.

- [Reporter] So there wasn't
an attempted coup, Premier?

- No, there wasn't.

- [Frank] There
were also stories

of him approaching the palace,

of trying to get the
Queen to save him.

- There was the feeling
that Joh was going

a little bit bananas.

- [Quentin] It all
became quite farcical.

- [David] I mean, a man
of his stubbornness,

a man with his history,

a man with his steel is
not going to go quietly.

- [Reporter] Have
you got any plans

for your retirement anyway?

- No, I haven't.

- [Reporter] Are you going
to stay until the election?

- I'll stay on as long
as I want to stay on.

- His final moments are tragic.

He had been turned
away at every door

and the last thing
that he could do,

he basically barricaded
himself in the office

and refused to leave.

- Have a good day. Okay?

- [Reporter] Wow.

- [Reporter] Well, yes,
he's still in his office

at the executive building.

He is a bitterly
disappointed man.

- [Matthew] Joh had
lost touch with reality.

He'd lost it.

- [Edwina] For days, three
days, he stayed in there.

- [Quentin] Even though people
were knocking on his door,

saying, "Joh, it's
over, you've got to go.

You've got to go."

He held out until it
became ridiculous.

- [Paul] He almost became
locked in this delusion

that if he just stayed there
long enough, he could beat it.

(bell dinging)

- [David] Surely, that
would suggest to you

that he's made his modus
operandi was power.

Power.

(dramatic music)

(bell dinging)

- [Joh] I've decided
to resign as premier

and retire from parliament
effective immediately.

I do appreciate your prayers.

I wish you well.

Thank you all.

Goodbye.

(dramatic music)

- [John] He was disappointed
at the way in which it

the way it ended.

He would have loved to
have done the 20 years.

(gentle music)

- [Norm] Well, first of
all, Joh was not corrupt.

- [Raymond] But you've got
to look at the evidence

and the evidence
shows that he was.

- [Sallyanne] I will go
to my death, my deathbed

not believing that
Joh was corrupt

and I base that on the fact
that I never saw any evidence

of corruption or greed
or looking for wealth.

I think what he did do, which
was a sort of country way,

was a few favours for mates.

- [David] Well, Joh was
never convicted of any crime.

He walked away with nothing.

He walked away after
years of public service,

making Queensland great, an
innocent man that left a legacy.

And that is the story.

(gentle music)

- [David] Joh,

a man who made history

that history's
already forgotten,

but what a character.

I'll never see another
one of him, I don't think.

- [Bob] When he was
getting a bit enfeebled,

and Florence said,

"Bob, Joh has to lie down now.

He's pretty
exhausted, you know."

But it was very sad.

I had to carry him in my arms
and put him in the bed. Hmm.

That's the last time
I saw him. Yeah.

(sombre music)

- [Meg] For me, I mean,
he died years and years

after he left politics

and I can still remember
we had a beautiful service

in the town hall, and there was
just all this sea of people.

He really did have an impact

and people felt that it
was the passing of an era.

- As a matter of fact,
it meant a lot to me

(gentle music)

because I knew the guy,

and Queensland lost
someone special.

- We look at Joh and think,

"Once in a generation,
this character."

Then we look at Trump
and we go, "Hang on."

Some bells start
to ring in terms of

what we've gone through a
generation or two before.

I mean, that template
was already here

with a peanut farmer at
the bottom of the world,

and now we see it play
out on a world stage.

But there are eerie
and uncanny parallels.

- Well, it's a beautiful
sunrise up here this morning.

There was nothing like
Bethany, but very beautiful.

God's work.

I can hear father's voice.

"You stand tall.

You walk with your
shoulders straight, Joh,

and hold that head high, son.

You go out on your own terms."

Now what do you think
I scribbled in my Bible

that night after my last
session in Parliament?

"God, Save the Queen?"

"They know not what they do?"

Oh, no, no, no, no.

"It is finished."

It is finished.

(gentle music)

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