Page 658 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 4 July 1989
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The longer that Government went on, the greater the State became a dictatorship. In all those years, as time went on, the more blatant and obvious became the use of public position for personal gain; the more and more corrupt Queensland became. While this happened, to a large extent very, very publicly, the vote for the Queensland Premier increased and increased and increased, election after election after election. The worse he became, the greater became his vote.
It is proper now for Queenslanders to establish those procedures recommended by Fitzgerald. But I wonder whether at the same time Queensland people will review their own role in those nightmare years. My purpose for speaking is to give that same message to the people of the ACT. Why was there no outcry in Queensland when their leader accepted preferential shares from companies with which the Government was doing business at that time?
Where was the outrage when their leaders illegally traded in government-given oil prospecting shares? What did the public do when the Government boasted - yes, boasted and campaigned on the fact - of the gerrymander? What did the public do when, without justification, Bjelke-Petersen spent millions of dollars of government money on his own property? What did it do when he bribed a television magnate to fund losses in his overseas loans?
Even when two Ministers and the most senior police went in shame for their corruption, why was there no overwhelming outcry against that Government? Why was that Government not forced from office? I do not know. I was there, but I do not know. I did not come to Canberra because of circumstances in which I was involved there; I came to Canberra because I could see that the people were allowing this to happen.
As a member of the species political I am going to carry some of that odium. Our democracy carries some of it, too. Was the silence of people in Queensland - the comparative silence - just a deep cynicism expressed towards all those in parliament? I hope not. Was that just what they expected that politicians would do? Is there a message for us about that? What do people in Canberra think? Is that the measure of their thinking?
Procedures now have to be put into place in Queensland. It is urgent; it is essential; it is acknowledged. It may not happen. But let us not forget that what happened in Queensland may happen anywhere in Australia, and let the people of Queensland, the people of the ACT and the people of Australia also not forget that they have a basic responsibility to act in response to what their governments do. They must not let any government get away with such actions as they did in Queensland.
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