In 1984, then-Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen went on a racist tirade against the Labor party, describing them as "10 little n***** boys".

The revelation is one of many to come from 30-year-old Cabinet documents released on Thursday.

Queensland's consent laws hark back to the state's discriminatory past towards its LGBTIA community. Up until 1990 homosexuality was illegal in Queensland and the Joh Bjelke-Petersen Government tried to keep it that way. Credit:Fairfax Media

The tirade came in the same year Mr Bjelke-Petersen was knighted and awarded an honorary law degree from the University of Queensland.

In 1984 the state government also rejected a recommendation to increase award wage rates to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees, with Mr Bjelke-Petersen telling Cabinet colleagues that increasing wages would increase unemployment.