Lady Florence Bjelke-Petersen dies aged 97
Florence Bjelke-Petersen has passed away aged 97, surrounded by her family on Wednesday.
‘Lady Flo’ was the wife of controversial Queensland premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen and was herself an Australian senator for the Nationals.
She passed away at 3.46pm on Wednesday at Lutheran Services Orana Aged Care Service after a short illness, the Kingaroy facility said in a statement.
Lady Flo had lived at the aged care centre since August 2014, and had played the organ at the church until recently.
“She was surrounded by her family and loved ones including her sister Margaret Gilmour,” Lutheran Orana said in a statement.
Her husband, the longest-serving Queensland premier, passed away in 2005 aged 94.
Lady Flo became a senator when her husband, the Queensland Premier, appointed her to fill a casual vacancy created by the resignation of senator Glen Sheil. She remained a senator until 1993.
Lady Flo was also famous for her pumpkin scones.
Did you live in Queensland during the Bjelke-Petersen years? What are your memories of that time?
Joh was born in NZ which today I guess would ban him from Parliament.
I lived in Queensland when Joe ran the show. Crooked as a dogs hind leg. But the hospital system worked and I always felt it was the best state to live in. One thing about Joe he got the job done.
I've tried old Flo's pumpkin scones recipe and they were good as well. :)
Section 44 of the Constitution only applies to Federal politicians Brocky. Of course, that means that Kenneally didn't have to relinquish her US citizenship as a state politician and I wonder if she did it when standing for Bennelong.
Yes of course OM it’s only a federation that needs a written constitution to appease the mendicant States .
UK NewZealand and Australian States don’t have one their Parliments are supreme they can make any law they like.
Certainly, from memory, Lady Flo was the 'better half' of the partnership with Joh, but I cannot say that her time in politics was particularly memorable. In fact, I cannot remember her actually achieving anything apart from a good salary. What sticks in my throat is the statement that she has been honoured by both sides of politics for her 'service'. What service? For whom? Is Australia a better place for her time in Parliament? I am thoroughly sick of the incestuous self-congratulation and back-slapping of our politicians, let alone the rewards they heap upon themselves. It is about time they were only honoured for positive achievements and not for 'being there'.
With you BillF2 100% bloody bludgers and crooks
Joh was a real mongrel -- never answered a question and was a crooked as -- and also a so-called "Christian "
So-called indeed! Definitely not the real thing.
It is strange that they never managed to jail the bribe taking crooked bastard.
" Got to feed the chooks" talk to the media
YACK
Joh made Queensland .
Yeah - made Queensland the most corrupt state in the country.
Compared to whom?
Joh was corrupt and a total bastard. Flo was a bit better ... but not much. They were both a pox on Queensland.
Knows-a-lot,
You forget that it was not just Jo, it was the majority of his governments and the public service that were in the thick of it. Flo must have known, so she was complicit.
Anyone who says differently is either ignorant of the obvious evidence, or agree with "ends justifying the means" , and so part of the problem.Jo made Queensland, indeed - he made it a crime ridden mess, sold off to the highest bidder.
In Tasmania, it is heading the same way as Qld was then. I moved to get away from that sort of crap, but at least we don't have a gerrymander...yet.
Tasmania doesn’t have a gerrymander ? You must be kidding they have the same number of Senators on a population of 500,000 as NSW with a population of 5,000,000
Janus, it was a requrement of his Ministers that they sign an undated letter of resignation and hand it over to him so that he culd get rid of them at any time. Public Servants are not there to question the decisions made by governments, they can offer advice, but at the end of the day, corrupt decisions are made at the top.
Joh may have had corrupt ministers and civil servants around him as did the Labor govt in NSW but that did not make the Premier of NSW corrupt .
Unlike Bourke in WA .
Brocky, you are simply jealous. Tasmania did not write the Constitution. We don't have a deliberate rigging of the system (=gerrymander) but enjoy(?) the numbers. You want the same system? Cull your population...
Actually we have far too many politicians here; anybody want some spares? they aren't much use to us.
I suspect that there is corruption wherever there is money and power. I must be honest, as I have't much of either of these.
Does anyone understand Tasmania’s voting system... Tasmania's Hare-Clark Electoral SystemHOMECURRENT: TASMANIA'S HARE-CLARK ELECTORAL SYSTEMWhat is Hare-Clark?
The Hare-Clark electoral system is a Single Transferable Vote (STV) method of proportional representation used in multi-member electorates. STV means that a ballot paper moves between candidates as determined by the elector's preferences.
Come on Brocky, he was either corrupt or incompetant, pick one. He had total control over his Ministers and could get rid of them at any time, so as I said, was he corrupt or incompetant?
Never paid a cent into Super and went begging to the Labor government for a payout when his bribe money ran out, no guts, no pride, no integrity. Just like most deposed dictators.
Here is just one example of this mans idea of right and wrong, what would you say if this was a labor politician?
Bjelke-Petersen was called to the Fitzgerald corruption inquiry on 1 December 1988, where he said that despite allegations raised in the media and parliament, he had held no suspicion in the previous decade of corruption in Queensland. He said a Hong Kong businessman's 1986 donation of $100,000 to an election slush fund—delivered in cash at the premier's Brisbane office—was not unusual, and that he did not know the identify of other donors who had left sums of $50,000 and $60,000 in cash at his office on other occasions. Questioned by barrister Michael Forde, Bjelke-Petersen—whose citation for his 1984 knighthood noted that he was "a strong believer in historic tradition of parliamentary democracy"—was also unable to explain the doctrine of separation of powers under the Westminster system.[69]
Not a good look.
Bjelke-Petersen said his defence costs sent him broke.
Good, he managed to stay out of gaol, he should have been thankful for that. He sent a lot of good people into bankruptcy just for disagreeing with him publicly. If he had not been corrupt maybe he would not have had the expense of a trial or trials.
A lot of good people suffered under is regime.
Also, the likes of Russ Hinze they may a good crooked pair and Joh sold out for any money he could get never a thought to the damage he did in clearing the trees and making roads that damaged the reef -- he was a nasty wicked man along with Hinze
Was that the guy who built the Hinze dam?
He definatley put his considerable weight behind the plan, just as soon as he and his family bought out all of the milk producing licenses in the area. He was the Police Minister who refused to do anything about the illegal gambling dens and brothels in the Valley because as he said " They do not exist."
He spent his week ends with his bucket and spade helping to dig the dam.
I think it's sad that we are dealing with a death of a person who did a lot for others yet some people choose to make hateful comments not applicable to Lady Florence. You people ought to be ashamed, this is not the time nor place for your ill-timed comments.
Utter rubbish ...........we will say what we like and we have our own views.
I am not ashamed at all and I hope that the bitch is shovelling shit in HELL.
you believe in hell - not a bright little pussy are you
Old Man, I never liked her OR Joh in life nor in death -- so why would I not speak the truth about them -- death does not alter the fact they were both crooks
Hitler did not become untouchable just because he died.
I am sure Lady Flo was a good woman wife to her husband and mother of her children, She must be saluted for standing by her husband even though he was corrupt. I do not live in Queensland but remeber that hse wad famous for her scones, rip
Standing by her corrupt husband, means she is just as guilty.
no principles whatsoever
What nonsense Joh was never convicted of any wrongdoing and yes his wife stood by his side , Good oh her .
His lack of prosecution was very likely because he had the Police Ministers resignation in a draw of his desk, signed but not dated. We said he was corrupt not stupid.
This is a man who railed against the Public Service Super scheme and refused to pay into it, only to beg for an ex gratia payment from that scheme when he retired and his funding dried up. Luckily there was a labor government in charge at the time and they showed him the door.
Those who criticise Rudd for the deaths over Pink Batts need to look at the ill trained men killed working on power lines because Jo wanted to kill off the Electrical Trades Union.
This is a man who had a rusted wreck towed to a workshop owned by a millionaire business man and by some miracle it came out as a brand new D9.
He kept the media on side by threatening to pull his considerable advertising if they went too far in his opinion and used tax payers money to sue anyone who tried to stand up to him. He kept secret files on anyone who opposed his views. A typical nasty right wing dictator, we thrived when we finally got rid of him.
I had no problem with Flo, she did a lot of good work in her neighbourhood, and god knows how bad her husband would have been if she wasn't there to temper his maniac moods.
Yep Flo was just as Guilty by being with her crooked Husband -- and dead right there too ex PS the police were as bad as Joh all were as corrupt as and have a hell of a lot to answer for -- cruel dictators the lot of them
Joh saved Queensland from daylight savings though, and Lady Flo's curtains never faded
the rest is history
Yep, he could not see any reason for changing just because others did. Many of us still can't see the point of daylight saving. If we want to get up early we use a device only available in Queensland, it's called an alarm clock.
We doesn't need no guvmant people to change the way nature intended us to live jest so some city sliker can sit on the beech for an extra hour once a month. Most of these people utilize the extra sunlight to watch TV and play computer games
In this age of 24/7 activity daylight saving for business purposes makes even less sense, you can send someone a text or email any time of the day and you are expected to answer your phones even at home. Daylight saving is becoming more and more irrelevant.
I loathe daylight saving -- and it also goes on far too long -- thanks to Howard!
You may have an alarm clock ExPS, but you can’t go
to school an hour early , make all businesses start and finish an hour early etc
typical selfish and backward lefty thinking
And you can't get kids into bed when the sun is still blazing outside. The business hours arguement is so outdated, it did not hold water twenty years ago and it holds less water now.
What difference does it matter if a business doesn't open its doors at the same time as another?
Do we not do business with the USA, Britain or Europe because they have different business hours?
Can we not send a text or contact some one in another state at virtually any hour of the day at work or at home?
Do we not have access to shift work and shift workers?
Tell me Raphael, how does the time difference impact on a modern business run by motivated intelligent people?
The real problem is that some people can not respond to new ways of thinking and new technology, just because something was so twenty years ago, does not mean that times can not move on and things can change.
You can throw in all the left thinking comments you like, it does not make up for a lack of debating ability. Actually it is making you look a bit sad. The sky could fall down tomorrow and you would blame it on left thinking, you use the term so often, you have made it quite ineffective when it comes from you.
We are talking about a 24/7, flexible workforce in this century, how on earth will daylight saving have any effect on such a society?
Having you on these pages pete is miserable HELL
Go away Micha you are a negative A/H
You are a pathetic tortured person.
I grew up in Queensland.
Lady Flo
Joh Bjelke-Petersen
Sir Johannes Bjelke-Petersen, KCMG (/?bi??lki? ?pi?t?rs?n/, 13 January 1911 – 23 April 2005) . He was the longest-serving and longest-lived Premier of Queensland,[1] holding office from 1968 to 1987, during which time the state enjoyed considerable economic development.
The young Bjelke-Petersen suffered from polio, leaving him with a lifelong limp. The family was poor, and Carl Bjelke-Petersen was frequently in poor health
. Bjelke-Petersen finished formal schooling at age 14 to work with his mother on the farm, though he later enrolled in correspondence school and undertook a University of Queensland extension course on the "Art of Writing".
He taught Sunday school, delivered sermons regularly in nearby towns and joined the Kingaroy debating society.
In 1933, Bjelke-Petersen began work land-clearing and peanut farming on the family's property. His efforts eventually allowed him to begin work as a contract land-clearer and to acquire further capital which he invested in farm equipment. He developed a technique for quickly clearing scrub by connecting a heavy anchor chain between two bulldozers
. By the time he was 30, he was a prosperous farmer and businessman.Obtaining a pilot's licence early in his adult life, Bjelke-Petersen also started aerial spraying and grass seeding to further speed up pasture development in Queensland.
Great, he raped the land in his early years and graduated to raping the tax payer as he got older. Fantastic eye opener.
Take a drive through the Kingaroy region these days, you can look at all the lovley shades of brown. Then drive half an hour south and see all the shades of green, it demonstrates the way he lived his life, the dollar was king.
There is a reason why his method of land clearing was banned in many states and countries.
I didn't live in Queensland during the Bjelke-Petersen years but we holidayed there a lot. We were living about 500km from Sydney and we used to holiday with friends about the same distance from Brisbane and it was very noticeable that living in Queensland was much cheaper than living in NSW. Food, drinks, tobacco, alcohol and fuel was noticeably cheaper.
Queensland was the first state to abolish the insidious death duties that, in a lot of cases, caused family farms and businesses to be sold to pay the duties. The other states and the federal government at the time predicted that the removal was short-lived and would fail but it wasn't long before they also fell into line.
Joh may have been a lot of things, certainly his opponents were quick to point out his shortcomings and alleged illegal activities but Joh died with no convictions against his name. I admired the way Queensland prospered under his leadership and he always had lady Flo by his side supporting him. She was a tireless worker for her family, her church and her community and I salute her.