Joh Bjelke-Petersen

Sir Johannes "Joh" Bjelke-Petersen  (13 January 191123 April 2005), also nicknamed Sir Joh, was an Australian politician who served as the 31st Premier of Queensland. He was Queensland's longest-serving and longest-lived Premier. While he was Premier, he was the leader of the Queensland branch of the National Party, which used to be called the Country Party.

He was a very conservative politician with many controversial views. He was also very controversial because his government did many things that were corrupt. Some historians have even described him as being "semi-authoritarian". For example, he is responsible for the "Bjelkemander", which was a type of gerrymander (which is a practice that makes it easier for one party to win government). The Bjelkemander meant that more seats were in rural and remote areas so the National Party would always be in government, because the Labor Party and the Liberal Party got most of their votes from cities. He was also involved in the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis, which made Gough Whitlam resign as Prime Minister.

He once tried to run in the 1987 federal election to try and become Prime Minister, as part of the "Joh for Canberra" campaign. However, he did not do it because of the Fitzgerald Inquiry, which was a controversial inquiry that exposed corruption in his government and saw many of his ministers taken to jail, some even lost their knighthoods. This saw him resign as Premier and he quit politics altogether. It also was a reason that his party lost the 1991 state election. He was later trialed in court for perjury, but was not convicted and he was not trialed again because he was too old.

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Category:Premiers of Queensland
Category:Members of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland
Category:1911 births
Category:2005 deaths
Category:New Zealand people