The point of departure being that after the October 1970 Albert by-election loss and the OTL Comalco shares scandal (hey, its Queensland!), Joh Bjelke-Petersen is dumped in the OTL party room revolt that he, only barely squeeked through on after "producing" proxy votes from absent members (which may or may not have been outright fabrications), frantic phone calls during the night pulling his deficit from 16-10 to even (23+his own vote plus 2 proxy votes), the intervention of Robert Sparks, the party president and critically one of the main power brokers and old fashioned bluffs to his colleagues (or outright lies). Still it came down to his own vote in the heat of it by then and of course he supported himself...
So plenty of chances in this 24 hour period:
So Joh's leadership would have finished after just two years instead of 19. We get Ron Camm, then Minister for Mines installed as Premier, as he seems to have been the the choice of the plotters.
On the one hand, Camm was an extremely strong believer in the "development and progress" policies, so that would continue, if not more so under his tenure and his OTL support and policies suggests that most of the economic policies and decisions would still be undertaken e.g. oil exploration on the Barrier Reef, mines development and international investment from the likes of Japan, building up the gold coast, tourism and energy development and export markets etc. From the Australian Dictionary of Biography sums it up "He judged virtually everything according to its contribution to Queensland’s `progress’."
Would this change the institutional corruption that was happening? I don't think so, when you still have people like Russ Hinze rising through the ranks. However I haven't read anything that suggestions Camm was personally corrupt. Though during his tenure as Minister for Police, he did nothing about changing the status quo such as verballing, but in the Fitzgerald Report, Camm was is quoted as saying "I didn’t want to let Whitrod go in the first place.” Ray Whitrod had just been appointed in September 1970 as Commissioner, so his tenure might well be very different than it was in terms of reform, modernisation and anti-corruption measures within the Qld police force.
Given the disorganised opposition Labor party in Qld at the time, the gerrymandering of the electorates, the economy and the appeal to the 'mainstream' of Queenslanders at the time, its potential difficult to see the Nationals removed from office some time. I'd say at some point through a combination of lesser scandals and corruption, and probably party implosion, they're kicked out. However at least under Camm's watch, maybe there are fewer of the worst excesses of the Joh years and there's probably still a big royal commission into corruption in public life towards the end of the 1980s, but I don't know whether it would be as earth shatteringly huge as Fitzgerald was.
Of course, that's just what might be happening north of the Tweed, and barring the butterflies wing's by 1975 and the appointment of a replacement ALP senator from Queensland...
So plenty of chances in this 24 hour period:
- Russ Hinze (pro-removal) doesn't go and tell Joh the day before they have the numbers to roll him, otl this led to the overnight efforts by Joh to shore up support.
- Joh doesn't convince as many of his colleagues as he did OTL over night and is rolled, making his produced proxy vote/s still not enough to win (13-12 for removal).
- Sparks throws his weight behind removing Joh (OTL Sparkes turned on Sir Joh in '87 when the writing was on the wall) so might decide "whats best for the party.."
So Joh's leadership would have finished after just two years instead of 19. We get Ron Camm, then Minister for Mines installed as Premier, as he seems to have been the the choice of the plotters.
On the one hand, Camm was an extremely strong believer in the "development and progress" policies, so that would continue, if not more so under his tenure and his OTL support and policies suggests that most of the economic policies and decisions would still be undertaken e.g. oil exploration on the Barrier Reef, mines development and international investment from the likes of Japan, building up the gold coast, tourism and energy development and export markets etc. From the Australian Dictionary of Biography sums it up "He judged virtually everything according to its contribution to Queensland’s `progress’."
Would this change the institutional corruption that was happening? I don't think so, when you still have people like Russ Hinze rising through the ranks. However I haven't read anything that suggestions Camm was personally corrupt. Though during his tenure as Minister for Police, he did nothing about changing the status quo such as verballing, but in the Fitzgerald Report, Camm was is quoted as saying "I didn’t want to let Whitrod go in the first place.” Ray Whitrod had just been appointed in September 1970 as Commissioner, so his tenure might well be very different than it was in terms of reform, modernisation and anti-corruption measures within the Qld police force.
Given the disorganised opposition Labor party in Qld at the time, the gerrymandering of the electorates, the economy and the appeal to the 'mainstream' of Queenslanders at the time, its potential difficult to see the Nationals removed from office some time. I'd say at some point through a combination of lesser scandals and corruption, and probably party implosion, they're kicked out. However at least under Camm's watch, maybe there are fewer of the worst excesses of the Joh years and there's probably still a big royal commission into corruption in public life towards the end of the 1980s, but I don't know whether it would be as earth shatteringly huge as Fitzgerald was.
Of course, that's just what might be happening north of the Tweed, and barring the butterflies wing's by 1975 and the appointment of a replacement ALP senator from Queensland...