Joh's puppet-master Sparkes dies at age 77
08.08.2006
Robert Sparkes
Born May 31, 1929
Died August 6, 2006
ROBERT Sparkes, recognised as the patriach of the Queensland National Party and the brains behind the electoral success of Joh Bjelke-Petersen, died at his Gold Coast home on Sunday night.
Sir Robert, 77, had suffered from Parkinson's disease that left him virtually bedridden for several years.
Four years ago, Sir Robert clocked up 50 years of membership with the National and Country parties, and such was the esteem with which he was held that current state Nationals leader Lawrence Springborg sought his blessing for the party's ill-fated merger plans with the Liberals earlier this year.
He was the party's Queensland president for 20 years from 1971 and for most of that time was also chairman of Wambo Shire on the Darling Downs, where his family has owned grazing and grain-growing properties for generations.
In 1979, he was knighted for services to local government.
In 1973, with the nation having its first experiences of the newly elected Whitlam Labor government, Sir Robert understood that the Country Party had to change -- to modernise -- if it were to survive as a political force.
So, with energetic party secretary Mike Evans, he set about getting agreement for a name change to the National Party, and developing policies to attract electoral support and candidates in provincial and metropolitan seats.
And he was right, with Bjelke-Petersen going from strength to strength and eventually ruling in his own right in Queensland in 1986 with the help of gerrymandered electoral boundaries.
Tributes to Sir Robert flowed yesterday, with Premier Peter Beattie confessing his ``enormous regard'' for the skills of Labor's former adversary.
``Sir Robert Sparkes was probably one of the smartest political tacticians of my generation and one of the more significant men in my political time,'' Mr Beattie said. Mr Springborg said Sir Robert and Bjelke-Petersen were a formidable team ``and together they acted and campaigned on the values and goals of ordinary Queenslanders''.
Federal Nationals leader Mark Vaile said Sir Robert ``led the other state parties in changing name and direction''.
Sir Robert was the son of a former Country Party MP, James Sparkes. Despite his involvement in politics at the highest level, he never sought elected office for himself.
But people who were involved throughout his reign will confirm that nothing happened in the party, or in government, without his knowledge and imprimatur.
And that was particularly so at annual National Party conferences, which he ruled with an iron fist. Anything controversial was discussed behind closed doors and if he did not like a policy proposal, he ensured it was sidetracked or scuttled.
Bjelke-Petersen depended totally on the judgment of Sir Robert in his political decision-making and was constantly in touch by telephone. Yet despite this close working relationship, the pair were not close personally.
Sir Robert was a wealthy man, moderate in habits, prone to angry but controlled outbursts, and a political intellectual with few peers in Queensland.
Certainly he and Bjelke-Petersen operated on different levels. They fell out irreconcilably in 1987 when Bjelke-Petersen, stricken by delusions of grandeur after his 1986 election win, decided that Queensland was too small a patch for him and he should rule Australia.
Sir Robert was vehemently against the ``Joh for PM'' push, seeing it for the political folly it was. In November 1987, with that campaign in tatters and the party believing Bjelke-Petersen had lost the plot and should go, Sir Robert threw his weight behind the best talent available -- health minister Mike Ahern, the son of Jack Ahern who had preceded Sir Robert as party president.
Bjelke-Petersen knew Ahern was about to challenge him, so he sacked him and four other ministers, and Sir Robert announced on that day: ``He's done it this time -- he's finished.''
And he was. Ahern defeated Bjelke-Petersen in a partyroom ballot and the premier of 19 years resigned from parliament.
That momentous leadership change came at the height of the inquiry into police and political corruption being conducted by Tony Fitzgerald, which had revealed that the Queensland political system was rotten to the core. Implicit in that realisation was that people at the top -- and that included Bjelke-Petersen and Sir Robert -- were complicit in the corruption or even the architects of it.
The Fitzgerald inquiry exposed how business could not be conducted in Queensland unless the operators were prepared to donate to the National Party. The strength of the party was its huge financial support, which enabled it to spend hugely at election campaigns.
To that end, Sir Robert had overseen the establishment of the Bjelke-Petersen Foundation, a fund-raising committee of National Party luminaries who collected from business for the party coffers -- and in those days, none of the details were disclosed.
Sir Robert was party to the Nationals' policy of handing out vice-regal honours to the party faithful.
He understood that the Nationals would never get continued support without also addressing social issues, putting many ultra-conservatives in the party offside when he spoke out in support of legalising abortion and decriminalising prostitution.
But throughout his political career, his eye was on the big picture -- land tenure. His aim always was to get secure tenure, freehold if possible, for rural producers.
He knew that was where the real power lay. That, and the power to appoint friends and supporters to all positions of power, from police commissioner to chief justice, cabinet ministers to senior bureaucrats.
Sir Robert was the real ruler of Queensland and Bjelke-Petersen was his puppet.
