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Ius Murphy Had a Strong Political and Historical Interest in Biography the Personal Qualities Involved in Political Leadership

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Ius Murphy Had a Strong Political and Historical Interest in Biography the Personal Qualities Involved in Political Leadership 65 UTICAL LEADERSHIPAND QUEENSLAND NATIONALISM Brian Costar 'ius Murphy had a strong political and historical interest in biography the personal qualities involved in political leadership. Much ofhis best fJry was written during the 1970s-a time when Queensland was seen §any as being 'different' from the rest ofAustralia. Murphy remained \jJtical of this orthodoxy and argued in 1978 that, from an historical §pective, 'the image that a state has in the national picture is not .ething that is static. Itwill change and often be related to the calibre of state's political leaders' .1 Queensland in the 1980s seemed to prove him ~ng as Australia's first and only majority National Party gove=ent ~elected in 1983 (the year Murphy entered Parliament as the member (Stafford) and surprisingly re-elected in 1986. Premier Bjelke-Petersen r'?68-87), as the personal embodiment of all that was 'different' about t1.{eensland, reigned supreme and appeared invincible, yet he was deposed his own party in 1988 and the Labor electoral landslide which followed .1989 shattered more than a few myths about Queensland's inherent ?hservatism. Queensland's status as Australia's different state was usurped .Victoria in the 1990s, where the iconic leadership of Jeffrey Kennett dpught a revolution in the finances and governance ofthe State.' "0 is chapter investigates the relationship between 'Queensland j'(fationalism' and politicalleadership by reviewing the role played by then 'federal Opposition leader, Gough Whitlam, inreviving the electoral stocks f Queensland Labor in the 1960s.The chapter argues that there is more l!\an one seam in the lode ofQueensland nationalism and that the political ?1.I1ture ofthe state has been influenced by styles ofpolitical leadership to ~extent not sufficiently appreciated by previous co=entators. ,:¢onventional wisdom holds that Queensland was Prime Minister (1972­ 7?) Gough Whitlam's electoral nemesis because its political culture was @1erently hostile to the progressivism inherent in his reform agenda. Memories of the Gair Affair, the very poor result at the 1974 federal ?lection, the state Labor debacle later that year when the National Party's xlectoral motif was denunciation of the 'centralist, socialist' Canberra ,¥Ove=ent, the appointment ofPat Field to the Senate in the wake ofBert 66 67 Milliner's sudden death, and regular clashes between Whitlam and Bjelke be unnecessarily provocative and antagonistic'.' Provocation was, Petersen over race relations, the environment and just about everythin, ,oyer, central to Bjelke-Petersen's 'agitator' leadership style4 and he else suggests that Queensland was the harbinger of the collapse of tl:i~ 'red Robinson as well as his Liberal Treasurer, Gordon Chalk, who federal Labor government in late 1975 which left Bill Hayden as the sole -,concerned that his aggression might impede Queensland's access to Queensland ALP member ofthe House ofRepresentatives. "alfunds for health, education and transport. The Premier's position defiant: '1 won't take [federal] money ifit's associated with Socialistic Against this tale of woe must be set Whitlarn's spectacular popularity Communistic commitments'.5 the northern state (and particularly in its north) in the 1960s where he bui: a deserved reputation as a vote magnet at federal and state elections and 'ded by his press secretary, Allan Callaghan (later jailed for at the Dawson and Capricornia by-elections - much to Arthur Calwell'~ appropriating public funds), Bjelke-Petersen's political instincts were chagrin. By boosting its electoral appeal, he won supporters within and fNbe proved sound at the 1974 Queensland election. Encouraged by beyond the local ALP organisation whose votes saved him from expulsion a'bor's poor showing in Queensland at the May 1974 federal election, from the party in 1966 and aided his actions against the Victorian executive ',ere the party's failure to win four Senate places was to contribute to in 1970. litlam's sacking on 11 November 1975, Bjelke-Petersen's campaign ,etic for the November state poll was to attack the federal government. Regrettably, Queensland Labor's electoral revival in the sixties was not eclaring that 'I'll not stop until I get rid of the wreckers in Canberra',' mirrored in its extra-parliamentary organisation which was dominated ePremier constantly reminded voters not to be 'lulled by claims that the by as an unrepresentative and electorally indifferent trade union clique ~_eensland ALP is somewhat different from the federal ALP'.7 This 'guilt as was the Victorian branch. The only thing lacking in Queensland was ,yassociation' tactic proved devastatingly successful: Labor's primary any semblance of ideological fervour - alcoholic fervour there was in ote fell 10 percentage points from 1972 and it was reduced to a mere abundance. Ironically, Whitlam's electoral achievements and leadership even seats in a parliament of82. elan temporarily concealed deep flaws within the Queensland ALP organisationwhichprovedtotally ineptWhen leftto its ownresources during is election made Bjelke- Petersen's political reputation and provided the the electorally demanding 1970s. Those failures led to the emergence ofa 'edrockfor a further fourteenyeardominance ofQueenslandpolitics; hewas Reform Group led by Denis Murphy which secured the restructuring ofthe cramed the Australian newspaper's 'Man oftheYear' for 1974 and is easily Labor Party in 1981, thereby paving the way for the Labor Premierships of the state's longest serving Premier. By his clever targeting of the federal Wayne Goss and Peter Beattie. government, the Premier proved, so it seemed to many, that Whitlam's ''political agenda was totally incompatible with Queensland's inherently Premier Bjelke-Petersen v. Prime Minister Whitlam conservative and exceptionalist political culture. He certainly convinced We local ALP organisation as was evident from remarks made by party At the end of 1972 the political stocks of Whitlam and Bjelke-Petersen ~ecretary, Bart Lourigan, to the media on the Monday after the 7 December stood poles apart: the former, his leadership ofthe ALP secure at last, had state election in which he hectored Whitlam to accept full responsibility for led Labor to its first federal election victory since 1946; whereas the latter the electoral debacle - including a familiar jibe against 'a lot ofacademics had a near-death leadership experience in 1970 and the CountrylLiberal who aren't in the ALP and know nothing ofthe grassroots ofthe party and Coalition had to rely on Democratic Labor Party (DLP) preferences to never go out in the street and talk to the common people'.8 narrowly win the April 1972 state election. Bjelke-Petersen's precarious political situation, rather than acting as a restraint, encouraged him to What a Difference a Decade Makes confrontandchallenge theWhitlam governmenton multiple fronts. As early as February 1973 Queensland Liberal Party president and federal MHR for As Bjelke-Petersen flourished and Whitlam and the ALP floundered both McPherson, Eric Robinson, publicly rebuked the Premier for his constant federally and in Queensland after 1975, the conventional wisdom of attacks on the federal government and declared that 'the Premier should Queenslandparticularismbecameamantrachantedbythemedia,politicians 68 69 of all persuasions and certain academics. While it would be abistoric "eHolt a Jolt': The Dawson By-Election to deny a certain 'difference' in the Queensland polity, its precise na 1""-" and source deserve more analysis. In the midst of the 1974 state electi _. 0,%he 1960s the federal Queensland coastal constituency of Dawson campaign the perceptive Brisbane correspondent [DJ Murphy] for the 'nded from just north of Gladstone in the south to include Ayr in the Nation Review (22 November 1974) reminded its readers that 'Whitlam ,with the provincial city of Mackay as the major population centre. had built something ofa reputation ofa legend in Queensland in the 1960s son was a 'sugar' seat and had been held continuously by the Country ... The Laborvictories in the Dawson and Capricornia by-elections set him .since its creation in 1949. It was rendered vacant by the death of as a favourite Queensland son'. In fact from the time he became Deputy ,rge Shaw who had been elected in 1963. Despite presenting no danger Leader ofthe Federal Parliamentary Labor Party (FPLP) in 1960, Whitlam .e- Coalition's 22 seat majority, the by-election took on more than usual staked a claim to Queensland as bis electoral turf. This was both politically ainence since it was the first to be held in Queensland since 1939 and courageous and calculating: courageous because the circumstances ofthe , ',first electoral test of the popularity of Harold Holt as the new Prime 1957 Split had made the splinter QueenslandlDemocratic Labor Party (Q! 'iilister. In August 1965 the ALP had chosen Dr Rex Patterson as its DLP) electorally strong; and calculating since if Whitlam could enhance iididate for the forthcoming 1966 general election. Patterson was head of Labor's appeal in such a hostile environment it would confound bis rivals inorthern division ofthe federal Department ofNational Development. and assist in realising bis ambition to replace Arthur Calwell as !1rri.e Minister Robert Menzies decided it was 'monstrous' for a public leader. ',j;i;ant to remain in a confidential post advising a government he intended ;'/bppose and had bim 'sacked downstairs' to Canberra.12 Patterson, who To that end Whitlam campaigned enthusiastically
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