Mourning?

For those who live in Queensland, it was pretty hard to escape the news of the passing of Sir Joh Bjelke Peterson recently. His immediate family have my condolensces. For those who aren't aware, Sir Joh served as Queensland Premier for 19 controversial years, and it's interesting just how soon people forget. I am, of course, referring to the fact that sycophants have been coming out of the woodwork to basically say how great Joh was.

It should be remembered that this was a guy who effectively ran a police state, sent the whole state backwards 20 years and made it a laughing stock throughout the rest of the country (as it remains today if any of my recent travels are any indication). The Fitzgerald inquiry at the end of his reign revealed that he'd clung to power in very, um, dubious circumstances. I could go on and on, but as my father said at the time, "it's a wonder somebody didn't assassinate him". So while we're all handing out condolences on the passing of a public figure, let's not get too swept up in trying to romanticise the past that we overlook exactly what happened during this time.