The leader's proxy lie that allowed rule to go on
25.04.2005
THE only living former MP who served with Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen in opposition, and who subsequently spent 12 years in his ministry, has revealed how Queensland's longest-serving premier survived a leadership challenge by bluffing the party room into believing he held an absent member's proxy vote.
Had the vote been decided honestly, Sir Joh's leadership would have finished after just two years instead of his record spell of 19 years and three months as premier.
Neville Hewitt, 85, of Rockhampton, said he was ``angry'' about repeated reports claiming he was not in Australia at the time of the vote and that he would not have supported Sir Joh at the attempted coup.
But Sir Joh did not have Mr Hewitt's proxy, and the leadership ballot would therefore have resulted in a 13-12 win to the challenger, Ron Camm, who was then minister for mines. Sir Joh claimed he had the Hewitt proxy, making the vote 13-all, and he then cast his own vote to declare he still held the premiership.
The challenge was in October, 1970. The National Party caucus was unhappy with his leadership following a very public scandal which revealed Sir Joh and several other ministers (and Labor members) had accepted shares from the mining company Comalco, which was beginning mining ventures in Queensland.
Also, the Labor opposition had just moved a vote of no-confidence in the government, and Sir Joh's public stocks were taking a battering.
Main roads minister Russ Hinze led the plotters, but made the mistake of going to Sir Joh the evening before the vote and telling the premier they had the numbers to roll him.
Sir Joh worked the telephones through the night and pegged back the lead from a reported 16-10 deficit so that, when the vote was taken, he declared that he had the proxies of two absent members, Harold Hungerford and Hewitt, making the vote even.
Hungerford has since died and it is unknown whether Sir Joh even had his proxy. Members said he ``waved around a piece of paper'', but nobody was game to check what was on it.
Yesterday Mr Hewitt, who served as Aboriginal affairs and conservation minister, said: ``There have been reports even recently that I was in London and that Joh could not contact me. That's just lies. I had got back from overseas but Joh did not speak to me.
``The document he was waving around was actually a telegram with my signature at the bottom, and it was treated as a proxy from me.''
However, Mr Hewitt said that had Sir Joh succeeded in getting in touch with him he ``most certainly'' would have had his support.
