Although the Nationals had a last hurrah, when the Liberals were reduced to eight MPs at the 1983 state election, there were very dark storm clouds of corruption on the horizon. Joh Bjelke-Petersen resigned in 1987 as the smell of corruption in pre-Fitzgerald Queensland festered. Thirty years later, the Liberal National Party leader is Liberal Tim Nicholls with Deb Frecklington as his deputy from the seat of Nanango, which had always been held by the Nationals until the 2008 merger. The Queensland government minute of January 12, 1982, records a critical decision of Queensland cabinet and registers the utter frustration of the six Liberal MPs who were in cabinet. Queensland government minute of January 12, 1982 showing the Liberal Party ministers saying 'No' to Joh Bjelke Petersen.

In 1982, Nationals leader and Queensland’s premier of the day, Bjelke-Petersen, wanted his own appointments to become Queensland’s first and second judicial appointments; i.e. Queensland’s Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and Queensland’s Senior Puisne Judge. He objected to experienced judge Jim Douglas becoming Chief Justice, because Justice Douglas may have once voted for Labor. Justice Douglas was nominated by the Attorney-General, Liberal MP Sam Doumany, and supported by the Queensland Bar Association. Bjelke-Petersen had somehow heard that Justice Douglas may, or may not have, voted Labor at the 1972 state election and would not accept Justice Douglas becoming Queensland’s Chief Justice. Instead he asked that “well-credentialed” judges, Wally Campbell and Dormer Andrews, be considered for the two positions, Queensland historian Dr Harold Thornton said.

“Both Andrews and Douglas had seen active service in the World War II Western Desert campaign, and Campbell had been injured in RAAF flight training,” Dr Thornton said. “And Campbell and Douglas had both also served as President of the Bar Association.” Bjelke-Petersen wanted Justice Dormer Andrews, a former Hurricane fighter pilot shot down over Eygypt, to become Chief Justice. However, he accepted Justice Walter Campbell as a “compromise”, only if his choice Justice Andrews got the second-top legal job, the Senior Puisne Judge. The Liberal Party cabinet ministers of the day were furious because Bjelke-Petersen was ignoring convention.

Here you can see how each Liberal minister recorded their dissatisfaction. The Queensland minute of January 12, 1982, clearly shows the Liberal ministers (from the top) Llew Edwards, Sam Doumany, Bill Hewitt, Terry White, Brian Austin, Bill Knox and Don Lane, all writing the appointment of Justice Dormer Andrews did not have their support. Each writes: “This minute does not have my support.” It is a remarkable, but rarely seen, breach of cabinet solidarity during the many Bjelke-Petersen governments. There was talk Justice Andrews was a recommendation of Sir “Top Level” Ted Lyons, a businessman who was one of Bjelke-Petersen’s closest advisors.

This was reported in Tony Fitzgerald’s July 1989 report to Parliament on prostitution, crime, policing and corruption in Queensland in the 1980s. “Bjelke-Petersen would not accept Doumany’s recommendation of Mr Justice Douglas, whom it was rumoured had voted for the Australian Labor Party in a previous state election,” Mr Fitzgerald wrote. “Instead he advocated a more junior judge, Mr Justice Dormer George Andrews, a friend of Lyons, who had discussed the appointment with Bjelke-Petersen.” Sir Llew Edwards at the Nepalese Pagoda at Southbank. Credit:Tony Phillips Liberal leader of the time, Sir Llew Edwards remembers back to the abject frustration of the Liberal Party in 1982 in Bjelke-Petersen’s goverment.

He said the Liberal MPs had never before written their objection on a cabinet minute. “No. I had not done that before,” Mr Edwards said. “But we just felt that this was not the right decision,” he said. “But we felt there were indications that this might not work out,” he said. “And I didn’t see a very bright future in what was going on.”