Rob Borbidge
Encyclopedia
Robert Edward Borbidge AO
(born 12 August 1954), Australia
n politician, was the 35th Premier of Queensland, and leader of the Queensland
branch of the National Party
. His term as Premier was contemporaneous with the rise of the One Nation Party
of Pauline Hanson
, which would see him lose office within two years.
in Victoria in 1954. His parents owned a sheep property and were attracted to Queensland by Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen
's abolition of death duties, moving to the Gold Coast
. He attended The Southport School
and worked in his family motel
business. At this time, the Gold Coast was the home of the property development boom that the Bjelke-Petersen government actively fostered, working in close co-operation with a group of developers known as the "white-shoe brigade".
, the Country Party renamed itself as the National Party and contested seats in urbanised areas such as the Gold Coast outside of its rural heartland. As a sign of this, in 1980 Borbidge contested and won the seat of Surfers Paradise
from the sitting Liberal member, who had alleged corruption in property development by the Bjelke-Petersen government.
By the late 1980s after the scandal of the extreme corruption revealed by the Fitzgerald Inquiry
had engulfed Bjelke-Petersen, who was replaced as Premier and National Party leader in 1987 by Mike Ahern
. Borbidge, as a member of the new generation of Nationals untouched by political scandal, was promoted by Ahern to Cabinet
as Minister for Small Business, Communications and Technology. He received the important portfolio of Tourism in 1989 and was briefly made Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Tourism by Ahern's successor Russell Cooper
before he lost office at the hands of the Labor Party
's Wayne Goss
in the elections of 1989.
with the Liberals and adjusting to opposition after 32 years in office. In December 1991 an inquiry by the Criminal Justice Commission
was announced to investigate irregularities in the travel allowances of members of Parliament. Cooper announced that he was one of the individuals under investigation and resigned as National Party leader in favour of Borbidge.
In the lead-up to the 1992 elections Borbidge attempted to make overtures to the Liberals about reforming the coalition, but was rebuffed by the Liberals, who were aiming to finally achieve long-awaited senior coalition party status in Queensland. This did not eventuate, Goss remained in office, and the chastened parties discussed merging before agreeing to sign a new coalition agreement.
Borbidge and Liberal leader Joan Sheldon
failed initially to make much headway against the Goss government, with some disgruntled Nationals comparing Borbidge unfavourably to Bjelke-Petersen. In response to speculation about the leadership, Borbidge resigned as leader in June 1994 before being re-elected unopposed.
The Goss government's fortunes suffered a sharp reversal when it announced plans to construct a bypass through areas of bushland that comprised significant reserves of koala
habitats. Borbidge harnessed the groundswell of opposition arising from this and other controversial decisions to encourage a large protest vote
. Combined with the cynical mood engendered by the unpopular Keating
Labor federal government, this protest vote destroyed the Goss government's majority in the elections of July 1995. Goss relied on a majority of one vote in the Legislative Assembly
. The Court of Disputed Returns ordered a reballot after alleged irregularities in the narrowly Labor held electorate of Mundingburra
. In February 1996 the Liberal candidate, Frank Tanti, won the subsequent by-election and the numbers in the 89-seat Legislative Assembly were equal, with 44 Coalition seats versus 44 Labor seats and one Independent. The independent member for Gladstone
, Liz Cunningham
, announced that she would support the coalition and Borbidge became Premier.
The Borbidge government also initiated changes to the industrial relations system by introducing Queensland Workplace Agreements (QWA's), similar to the Australian Workplace Agreement
s later created under the Federal Liberal government of John Howard
. Borbidge also supported Howard in his efforts to reform Australian gun ownership laws after the Port Arthur massacre, a move that brought him unpopularity in some traditional National Party quarters. When in 1997 the High Court of Australia
expanded the recently-introduced concept of Native title
in bringing down the Wik decision (for which Borbidge criticised the bench as "historical dills"), Borbidge argued that Howard's proposed changes to the Native Title Act did not go far enough in abolishing native title from pastoral leases. The Act was supported by the National party federally, however.
The Borbidge government was almost immediately beset by scandal when it was revealed that during the Mundingburra by-election campaign, Borbidge and Cooper (now Minister for Police) had signed a secret Memorandum of Understanding with the Queensland Police Union guaranteeing the QPU the repeal of unpopular Goss government measures, the power of veto
over senior police appointments, and increased police funding in return for a donation of $
20,000 to the by-election campaign. This close relationship evoked many memories of the Bjelke-Petersen era, where relations between the executive and the police service were frequently close.
The matter was referred to the Criminal Justice Commission
(CJC), a body that had been established on the recommendation of the Fitzgerald Inquiry and that was regarded poorly both by the National Party and the Queensland Police. Retired New South Wales Supreme Court judge Kenneth Carruthers QC
was appointed to lead the inquiry, which also investigated an allegedly improper agreement between the Labor Party and the Sporting Shooter's Association.
The government became embroiled in a war of words with the CJC, and Sheldon's first budget as Treasurer
reduced funding for the body. In October 1996 the government announced an inquiry into the CJC itself. This had a dramatic sequel when after the new inquiry, led by retired Queensland Supreme Court judges Peter Connolly QC and Kevin Ryan QC, requested that Carruthers hand over all records from his inquiry, he resigned without completing his inquiry, alleging interference. The Carruthers Inquiry was completed by Bob Gotterson QC and Brendan Butler SC, who ultimately exonerated all the participants from facing potential criminal charges.
In June 1997 Carruthers and the CJC went to the Supreme Court of Queensland
applying for an end to the Connolly-Ryan inquiry. The Court closed the inquiry in August, stating that it had acted outside of its terms of reference and Connolly was compromised by bias. A subsequent motion of no confidence was passed in the Parliament against Denver Beanland, Attorney-General, with Cunningham's support, but Beanland, with Borbidge's support, refused to resign.
In the lead-up to the 1998 elections, intense speculation surrounded the role that the new One Nation Party
, formed in April 1997 by Queensland federal MP Pauline Hanson
, would play. Hanson's positions on issues such as multiculturalism
, gun ownership and native title
were well-received in rural and regional Queensland, and the Nationals struggled to prevent leakage of their electoral base to One Nation. The cynical mood in the electorate that Borbidge had harnessed to win office now began to turn against him, as he endeavoured to satisfy both the hard-line conservatives deserting the Nationals, and the urban Liberal supporters who detested Hanson and her views. Borbidge attempted to ensure that One Nation would be placed last on coalition how-to-vote cards, but the organisational wings of both the Liberal and National parties rebuffed him and insisted that they would preference One Nation ahead of Labor (see Australian electoral system
).
In the 1998 election, the Liberals were severely punished for this stance, while unexpectedly high One Nation primary vote totals saw the new party gain 11 seats in the Legislative Assembly. The Coalition was reduced to 32 seats, and after independent Peter Wellington agreed to support a minority Labor government led by Peter Beattie
, Borbidge resigned from office.
Borbidge made little headway as Opposition Leader against Beattie. After Beattie's government secured a landslide re-election victory at the 2001 state election, Borbidge vacated the National Party leadership and created controversy when he immediately resigned from parliament, forcing a by-election in Surfers Paradise. Voter backlash at having to return to the polls quickly resulted in the election of an independent member in the traditionally safe National seat.
Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
(born 12 August 1954), Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n politician, was the 35th Premier of Queensland, and leader of the Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
branch of the National Party
National Party of Australia
The National Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Traditionally representing graziers, farmers and rural voters generally, it began as the The Country Party, but adopted the name The National Country Party in 1975, changed to The National Party of Australia in 1982. The party is...
. His term as Premier was contemporaneous with the rise of the One Nation Party
One Nation Party
One Nation is a far-right and nationalist political party in Australia. It gained 22% of the vote translating to 11 of 89 seats in Queensland's unicameral legislative assembly at the 1998 state election and made major inroads into the vote of the existing parties...
of Pauline Hanson
Pauline Hanson
Pauline Lee Hanson is an Australian politician and former leader of Pauline Hanson's One Nation, a political party with a populist and anti-multiculturalism platform...
, which would see him lose office within two years.
Early life
Borbidge was born in the town of AraratArarat, Victoria
Ararat is a city in south-west Victoria, Australia, about west of Melbourne, on the Western Highway on the eastern slopes of the Ararat Hills and Cemetery Creek valley between Victoria's Western District and the Wimmera...
in Victoria in 1954. His parents owned a sheep property and were attracted to Queensland by Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen
Joh Bjelke-Petersen
Sir Johannes "Joh" Bjelke-Petersen, KCMG , was an Australian politician. He was the longest-serving and longest-lived Premier of Queensland, holding office from 1968 to 1987, a period that saw considerable economic development in the state...
's abolition of death duties, moving to the Gold Coast
Gold Coast, Queensland
Gold Coast is a coastal city of Australia located in South East Queensland, 94km south of the state capital Brisbane. With a population approximately 540,000 in 2010, it is the second most populous city in the state, the sixth most populous city in the country, and also the most populous...
. He attended The Southport School
The Southport School
The Southport School , is an independent, Anglican, day and boarding school for boys, located in Southport, a suburb on the Gold Coast of Queensland, Australia....
and worked in his family motel
Motel
A motor hotel, or motel for short, is a hotel designed for motorists, and usually has a parking area for motor vehicles...
business. At this time, the Gold Coast was the home of the property development boom that the Bjelke-Petersen government actively fostered, working in close co-operation with a group of developers known as the "white-shoe brigade".
Parliamentary and Ministerial career
In an attempt to broaden its electoral base and reduce the influence of its coalition partner, the Liberal PartyLiberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
, the Country Party renamed itself as the National Party and contested seats in urbanised areas such as the Gold Coast outside of its rural heartland. As a sign of this, in 1980 Borbidge contested and won the seat of Surfers Paradise
Surfers Paradise, Queensland
Surfers Paradise is a suburb on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia. At the 2006 Census, Surfers Paradise had a population of 18,501....
from the sitting Liberal member, who had alleged corruption in property development by the Bjelke-Petersen government.
By the late 1980s after the scandal of the extreme corruption revealed by the Fitzgerald Inquiry
Fitzgerald Inquiry
The Fitzgerald Inquiry into Queensland Police corruption was a judicial inquiry presided over by Tony Fitzgerald QC. The inquiry resulted in the deposition of a premier, two by-elections, the jailing of three former ministers and a police commissioner who was jailed and lost his...
had engulfed Bjelke-Petersen, who was replaced as Premier and National Party leader in 1987 by Mike Ahern
Michael Ahern (Australian politician)
Michael John Ahern AO is a former Queensland National Party politician who was Premier of Queensland from December 1987 to September 1989. After a long career in the government of Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, Ahern became his successor amidst the controversy caused by the Fitzgerald Inquiry into...
. Borbidge, as a member of the new generation of Nationals untouched by political scandal, was promoted by Ahern to Cabinet
Cabinet (government)
A Cabinet is a body of high ranking government officials, typically representing the executive branch. It can also sometimes be referred to as the Council of Ministers, an Executive Council, or an Executive Committee.- Overview :...
as Minister for Small Business, Communications and Technology. He received the important portfolio of Tourism in 1989 and was briefly made Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Tourism by Ahern's successor Russell Cooper
Russell Cooper
Theo Russell Cooper is a former Australian National Party politician.He was Premier of Queensland for a period of 73 days, from 25 September 1989 to 7 December 1989...
before he lost office at the hands of the Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
's Wayne Goss
Wayne Goss
Wayne Keith Goss was Premier of Queensland from 7 December 1989 until 19 February 1996.-Early life:He was born at Mundubbera, Queensland and educated at Inala High School and the University of Queensland...
in the elections of 1989.
National Party leadership
In the post-election partyroom ballot, Borbidge was elected Deputy Leader of the party. The shell-shocked Nationals worked at rebuilding the fragile coalitionCoalition (Australia)
The Coalition in Australian politics refers to a group of centre-right parties that has existed in the form of a coalition agreement since 1922...
with the Liberals and adjusting to opposition after 32 years in office. In December 1991 an inquiry by the Criminal Justice Commission
Criminal Justice Commission
The Criminal Justice Commission was established in 1989 by the Queensland Criminal Justice Act 1989, following widespread corruption amongst high-level Queensland politicians and police officers being uncovered in the Fitzgerald Inquiry...
was announced to investigate irregularities in the travel allowances of members of Parliament. Cooper announced that he was one of the individuals under investigation and resigned as National Party leader in favour of Borbidge.
In the lead-up to the 1992 elections Borbidge attempted to make overtures to the Liberals about reforming the coalition, but was rebuffed by the Liberals, who were aiming to finally achieve long-awaited senior coalition party status in Queensland. This did not eventuate, Goss remained in office, and the chastened parties discussed merging before agreeing to sign a new coalition agreement.
Borbidge and Liberal leader Joan Sheldon
Joan Sheldon
Joan Mary Sheldon is an Australian politician. She was a Liberal Party of Australia member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly from 1990 to 2004, representing the electorates of Landsborough and then Caloundra...
failed initially to make much headway against the Goss government, with some disgruntled Nationals comparing Borbidge unfavourably to Bjelke-Petersen. In response to speculation about the leadership, Borbidge resigned as leader in June 1994 before being re-elected unopposed.
The Goss government's fortunes suffered a sharp reversal when it announced plans to construct a bypass through areas of bushland that comprised significant reserves of koala
Koala
The koala is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia, and the only extant representative of the family Phascolarctidae....
habitats. Borbidge harnessed the groundswell of opposition arising from this and other controversial decisions to encourage a large protest vote
Protest vote
A protest vote is a vote cast in an election to demonstrate the caster's unhappiness with the choice of candidates or refusal of the current political system...
. Combined with the cynical mood engendered by the unpopular Keating
Paul Keating
Paul John Keating was the 24th Prime Minister of Australia, serving from 1991 to 1996. Keating was elected as the federal Labor member for Blaxland in 1969 and came to prominence as the reformist treasurer of the Hawke Labor government, which came to power at the 1983 election...
Labor federal government, this protest vote destroyed the Goss government's majority in the elections of July 1995. Goss relied on a majority of one vote in the Legislative Assembly
Queensland Legislative Assembly
The Queensland Legislative Assembly is the unicameral chamber of the Parliament of Queensland. Elections are held approximately once every three years. Voting is by the Optional Preferential Voting form of the Alternative Vote system...
. The Court of Disputed Returns ordered a reballot after alleged irregularities in the narrowly Labor held electorate of Mundingburra
Electoral district of Mundingburra
The district of Mundingburra is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Queensland.- Overview :The seat is one of four within the Townsville urban area in North Queensland. Significant utilities within the Mundingburra electorate are the Townsville Hospital,...
. In February 1996 the Liberal candidate, Frank Tanti, won the subsequent by-election and the numbers in the 89-seat Legislative Assembly were equal, with 44 Coalition seats versus 44 Labor seats and one Independent. The independent member for Gladstone
Gladstone, Queensland
- Education :Gladstone has several primary schools, three high schools, and one university campus, Central Queensland University. It is also home to CQIT Gladstone Campus.- Recreation :...
, Liz Cunningham
Liz Cunningham
Elizabeth Anne "Liz" Cunningham is an Australian politician. She has been an independent member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly since 1995, representing the electorate of Gladstone...
, announced that she would support the coalition and Borbidge became Premier.
Premiership
Borbidge's government imitated that of Goss when it initiated sweeping changes in the public service when it won office. In some cases, figures who had been demoted or dismissed when Goss had come to power were reinstated to their former positions. Borbidge was criticised for attempting to stack the public service, but he counter-alleged that the public service was already subject to severe Labor bias.The Borbidge government also initiated changes to the industrial relations system by introducing Queensland Workplace Agreements (QWA's), similar to the Australian Workplace Agreement
Australian Workplace Agreement
Australian workplace agreements were formalized individual agreements negotiated by the boss and employee. Employers could offer "take it or leave it" AWAs as a condition of employment. They were registered by the employment advocate and did not require a dispute resolution procedure. These...
s later created under the Federal Liberal government of John Howard
John Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
. Borbidge also supported Howard in his efforts to reform Australian gun ownership laws after the Port Arthur massacre, a move that brought him unpopularity in some traditional National Party quarters. When in 1997 the High Court of Australia
High Court of Australia
The High Court of Australia is the supreme court in the Australian court hierarchy and the final court of appeal in Australia. It has both original and appellate jurisdiction, has the power of judicial review over laws passed by the Parliament of Australia and the parliaments of the States, and...
expanded the recently-introduced concept of Native title
Native title
Native title is the Australian version of the common law doctrine of aboriginal title.Native title is "the recognition by Australian law that some Indigenous people have rights and interests to their land that come from their traditional laws and customs"...
in bringing down the Wik decision (for which Borbidge criticised the bench as "historical dills"), Borbidge argued that Howard's proposed changes to the Native Title Act did not go far enough in abolishing native title from pastoral leases. The Act was supported by the National party federally, however.
The Borbidge government was almost immediately beset by scandal when it was revealed that during the Mundingburra by-election campaign, Borbidge and Cooper (now Minister for Police) had signed a secret Memorandum of Understanding with the Queensland Police Union guaranteeing the QPU the repeal of unpopular Goss government measures, the power of veto
Veto
A veto, Latin for "I forbid", is the power of an officer of the state to unilaterally stop an official action, especially enactment of a piece of legislation...
over senior police appointments, and increased police funding in return for a donation of $
Australian dollar
The Australian dollar is the currency of the Commonwealth of Australia, including Christmas Island, Cocos Islands, and Norfolk Island, as well as the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu...
20,000 to the by-election campaign. This close relationship evoked many memories of the Bjelke-Petersen era, where relations between the executive and the police service were frequently close.
The matter was referred to the Criminal Justice Commission
Criminal Justice Commission
The Criminal Justice Commission was established in 1989 by the Queensland Criminal Justice Act 1989, following widespread corruption amongst high-level Queensland politicians and police officers being uncovered in the Fitzgerald Inquiry...
(CJC), a body that had been established on the recommendation of the Fitzgerald Inquiry and that was regarded poorly both by the National Party and the Queensland Police. Retired New South Wales Supreme Court judge Kenneth Carruthers QC
Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel , known as King's Counsel during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent to be one of Her [or His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law...
was appointed to lead the inquiry, which also investigated an allegedly improper agreement between the Labor Party and the Sporting Shooter's Association.
The government became embroiled in a war of words with the CJC, and Sheldon's first budget as Treasurer
Treasurer
A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The adjective for a treasurer is normally "tresorial". The adjective "treasurial" normally means pertaining to a treasury, rather than the treasurer.-Government:...
reduced funding for the body. In October 1996 the government announced an inquiry into the CJC itself. This had a dramatic sequel when after the new inquiry, led by retired Queensland Supreme Court judges Peter Connolly QC and Kevin Ryan QC, requested that Carruthers hand over all records from his inquiry, he resigned without completing his inquiry, alleging interference. The Carruthers Inquiry was completed by Bob Gotterson QC and Brendan Butler SC, who ultimately exonerated all the participants from facing potential criminal charges.
In June 1997 Carruthers and the CJC went to the Supreme Court of Queensland
Supreme Court of Queensland
The Supreme Court of Queensland, which is based at the Law Courts Complex, is the superior court for the Australian State of Queensland and sits around the middle of the Australian court hierarchy...
applying for an end to the Connolly-Ryan inquiry. The Court closed the inquiry in August, stating that it had acted outside of its terms of reference and Connolly was compromised by bias. A subsequent motion of no confidence was passed in the Parliament against Denver Beanland, Attorney-General, with Cunningham's support, but Beanland, with Borbidge's support, refused to resign.
In the lead-up to the 1998 elections, intense speculation surrounded the role that the new One Nation Party
One Nation Party
One Nation is a far-right and nationalist political party in Australia. It gained 22% of the vote translating to 11 of 89 seats in Queensland's unicameral legislative assembly at the 1998 state election and made major inroads into the vote of the existing parties...
, formed in April 1997 by Queensland federal MP Pauline Hanson
Pauline Hanson
Pauline Lee Hanson is an Australian politician and former leader of Pauline Hanson's One Nation, a political party with a populist and anti-multiculturalism platform...
, would play. Hanson's positions on issues such as multiculturalism
Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism is the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g...
, gun ownership and native title
Native title
Native title is the Australian version of the common law doctrine of aboriginal title.Native title is "the recognition by Australian law that some Indigenous people have rights and interests to their land that come from their traditional laws and customs"...
were well-received in rural and regional Queensland, and the Nationals struggled to prevent leakage of their electoral base to One Nation. The cynical mood in the electorate that Borbidge had harnessed to win office now began to turn against him, as he endeavoured to satisfy both the hard-line conservatives deserting the Nationals, and the urban Liberal supporters who detested Hanson and her views. Borbidge attempted to ensure that One Nation would be placed last on coalition how-to-vote cards, but the organisational wings of both the Liberal and National parties rebuffed him and insisted that they would preference One Nation ahead of Labor (see Australian electoral system
Australian electoral system
The Australian electoral system has evolved over nearly 150 years of continuous democratic government, and has a number of distinctive features including compulsory voting, preferential voting and the use of proportional voting to elect the upper house, the Australian Senate.- Compulsory voting...
).
In the 1998 election, the Liberals were severely punished for this stance, while unexpectedly high One Nation primary vote totals saw the new party gain 11 seats in the Legislative Assembly. The Coalition was reduced to 32 seats, and after independent Peter Wellington agreed to support a minority Labor government led by Peter Beattie
Peter Beattie
Peter Douglas Beattie , Australian politician, was the 36th Premier of the Australian state of Queensland for nine years and leader of the Australian Labor Party in that state for eleven and a half years...
, Borbidge resigned from office.
Borbidge made little headway as Opposition Leader against Beattie. After Beattie's government secured a landslide re-election victory at the 2001 state election, Borbidge vacated the National Party leadership and created controversy when he immediately resigned from parliament, forcing a by-election in Surfers Paradise. Voter backlash at having to return to the polls quickly resulted in the election of an independent member in the traditionally safe National seat.
Further reading
- Wear, Rae. Robert Edward Borbidge: In the Shadow of Bjelke-Petersen. In Murphy D, Joyce R, Cribb M, and Wear, R (Ed.), The Premiers of Queensland pp. 388–399. Brisbane: University of Queensland Press. ISBN 0-7022-3173-8.