“I seriously doubt whether adequate knowledge presently exists within Australia to ensure that the design, approval granting procedures, and the other legal, administrative and social issues associated with construction of a project of this magnitude could be adequately considered,” Mr Hinze wrote. Nevertheless, Mr Hinze and Sir Joh wanted it built. Sir Joh with a model of Brisbane Central, which would have been the world's tallest building. Credit:David Hele That cabinet submission, released on New Year’s Day along with 1987’s other cabinet papers after the legislated 30-year public embargo was lifted, is still marked “security classification A”. It was the year the Queen Street Mall was built and Mr Hinze asked Brisbane City Council for compensation, although “there was no written submission” for the request.

Nineteen-eighty-seven was the beginning of the end for Sir Joh and the beginning of the rise for lawyer Tony Fitzgerald. It was the time of Queensland as the Moonlight State and Sir Joh’s divisive government was exposed. By the end of 1987, Sir Joh was toppled as Queensland premier after beginning the year trying to launch a campaign to move into the Lodge – a campaign with the simple slogan, Joh for PM. Sir Joh’s time had passed and his political judgment was shot. Within three years he would be charged with perjury over his evidence to the Commission of Inquiry into Possible Illegal Activities and Association Police Misconduct.

That inquiry was led by a barrister named Gerald Edward “Tony” Fitzgerald and his appointment would be the catalyst to the end of the National Party government in Queensland, culminating in Labor’s Wayne Goss being elected premier in 1989. After months of ugly conservative infighting, where Sir Joh tried to sack up to five of his ministers reportedly to stop Mr Fitzgerald’s now far-reaching inquiry, the disgraced premier finally resigned on December 1. He had been premier for 17 years. Queensland cabinet documents made public on Monday reveal just how sweeping the change was in 1987. We learn that, at $3000 a day, Mr Fitzgerald was well-paid for his work. But he and his family received numerous death threats and he lived with secret police protection for years.

Tony Fitzgerald, QC, on July 22, 1987. Credit:Peter O'Halloran The year began with an extraordinary Courier-Mail story by a then-junior reporter, Phil Dickie, who on January 12 published a report identifying the two main criminal groups running Queensland’s brothels. As the paper’s acting editor at the time, Greg Chamberlain, remembered, that first story was a “footslog” of checking phone numbers with a list of licensed land owners in the “wedge of land” at the top of Brunswick Street, Fortitude Valley. Sir Joh apparently dismissed the report and went to Wagga Wagga to launch his Joh for PM campaign on January 31. Phil Dickie’s research continued; he published another story on April 13, 1987, on illegal casinos operating quite brazenly in Brisbane, then another on April 18 on prostitution and the obvious police protection of sex workers.

The ABC’s Chris Masters moved to Brisbane and began investigating The Moonlight State program, which aired on May 11. By then, allegations of pay-offs to senior police could not be ignored and Queensland government finally acted at a cabinet meeting in Roma on May 25 to begin Mr Fitzgerald’s investigation. By October, the government was exposed and rattled, as this cabinet extract shows when Mr Fitzgerald argued for wider powers to have summons of arrest served overseas and interstate. He was chasing key figures; the disgraced Queensland police CIB bagman, Jack Herbert and brothel madam Anne Marie Tilley, avoiding summonses in London and Sydney respectively. Even then, the government was trying to ride the media.

“Notwithstanding the doubts held about the final success of the suggestions from Mr Fitzgerald it would be inappropriate, in view of the expectations raised by media comment, not to react favourably to his proposals and introduce legislation along the lines he has suggested,” cabinet was told. “Should the validity of processes under this legislation be subsequently successfully challenged at least the government will be seen to have attempted to react positively in seeking to ensure the success of the Commission of Inquiry.” Cabinet minutes on the Fitzgerald Inquiry are brief and the documents show their distribution was for few to keep. Most cabinet ministers could only “peruse and return” the typed submissions. Overall, there were 2811 cabinet submissions in 1987. A lot of them were oral submissions with no supporting information. Most ministers had junior high education. There was plenty of controversial debate over property development.