The Hillbilly Dictator: The Bjelke Petersen Years and Beyond in New Zealand

Kiwi_Froot

1911: Johannes Bjelke Petersen is born in Dannevirke in the Hawkes Bay Region of New Zealand to a Lutheran Pastor father Carl and homemaker mother Maren

1913 (POD): Due to financial constraints and poor health the Bjelke Petersen family decide not to move to Australia with Carl Bjelke Petersen instead taking over the ministry of a Lutheran church near Blenheim

1916: The family purchase a farm in the Wairau Valley that would soon be christened "Bethany"

1926: the 15 year old Joh leaves school to begin running the family orchard where his adoption of one of the first apple harvesting tractors enables him to quickly dominate the sector in Marlborough

1929: with a large amount of savings behind him in running his orchard and the great depression looming Joh purchases the neighboring orchard and incorporates the same mechanized methods as he did in his first orchard. Over the next 15 years Joh will expand from a mere 40 hectare orchard to over 500 hectares and gain considerable power and influence

1933: Joh becomes president of the local branch of the New Zealand Farmers Union in his first tilt at politics aged 22

1936: Sensing a changing political landscape and fearing a Communist takeover of his business Joh joins the newly formed New Zealand National Party

1946: Having becoming a successful local Businessman and wielding significant influence in local farm politics Joh becomes the National Party MP for Marlborough at the age of 35.

1950: after 4 years on the backbenches, Petersen is appointed Minister of Industries and Commerce under the government of Sidney Holland

1951: Petersen, alongside Labour Minister Bill Sullivan and Prime Minister Holland, plays a key rule in the anti strike legislation that broke up the Waterfront Lockout. Joh would enact similarly heavy handed legislation as Prime Minister to control dissent

1955: (POD two): On return from the Food and Agriculture Organization conference in Rome Agriculture Minister Keith Holyoake is rebooked at the last minute aboard South African Airways Flight 201 and is killed in the ensuing crash. Petersen is promoted to the powerful Agriculture Ministry in his place although Justice Minister Jack Marshall becomes Deputy Prime Minister

1957: Sidney Holland loses the 1957 General Election to Walter Nash and the Labour Party. A bitter leadership election exposes the urban liberal vs rural conservative wings of the National Party with the relatively liberal Marshall running against the conservative Petersen who narrowly edges out for the leadership. As a gesture of unity (or as Joh privately put it "feeding the chooks") Marshall remains Deputy

1960: after a deep recession and the "Black Budget" of 1958 Walter Nash is defeated and Johannes Bjelke Petersen becomes Prime Minister of New Zealand, at 49 the youngest Prime Minister in over half a century
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Hope this is allowed in this forum as a brief taste of an idea I have involving an alternate 1970s and 1980s for New Zealand and the knock on effects from the Bjelke Petersen Era into the present day
 

vetinari

Joh fated to remain in New Zealand and run his corrupt affairs there, rather than Australia? Great!

Tell me, does he still develop his own dialect when "feeding the chooks" as he called his press conferences? No one could understand what he meant when employed his doubletalk.
 

Kiwi_Froot

vetinari said:
Joh fated to remain in New Zealand and run his corrupt affairs there, rather than Australia? Great!

Tell me, does he still develop his own dialect when "feeding the chooks" as he called his press conferences? No one could understand what he meant when employed his doubletalk.
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Possibly with some uniquely Kiwi butchering of his vowels 😃
 

Kiwi_Froot

Part Two- The (not so) Swinging Sixties:

1961:
In a tight 40-39 vote with Speaker Jack Watts casting the deciding vote Parliament decides to keep the death penalty(1). Prime Minister Petersen, somewhat contradictory to his religious views, votes for retention of capital punishment.

1962:
--Western Samoa becomes Independent despite Joh's reluctance to let go of New Zealand's colony his cabinet agree that the cost is too much to keep it.

--in July Two Soviet citizens are arrested on suspicion of espionage. Weeks later they and the Soviet Ambassador are expelled prompting diplomatic relations with Moscow to sour although this is applauded by ANZUS allies and many of National's base

1963:
The state visit of Queen Elizabeth II to New Zealand in addition to the wool export boom allows the National Party to win a second term. Walter Nash announces his retirement from politics shortly afterwards

1964:
In June Prime Minister Petersen along with Defense Minister McIntyre announce that New Zealand will send troops to support the US efforts in Vietnam. In the same month Petersen personally intervenes with Immigration Minister Blair Tennent to prevent the Beatles from touring New Zealand due to the "overt sexual indecency" in the bands lyrics

1965:
--In May 1965 the Benmore Dam is opened, the first of many dams that were built under Bjelke Petersen's "think big" Infrastructure projects(2)
--in July 1965 a 33 hour long prison riot ends when the Prime Minister orders troops to storm the prison, 5 prisoners are killed and 21 seriously injured.
--Towards the end of the year a crisis brews within the Labour Party with a group of backbenchers looking to replace the leader Arnold Nordmeyer with the more youthful Norman Kirk, Kirk pulls out at the last minute due to worsening health problems and Nordmeyer remains leader(3)

1966:
--The March census shows that a growing urban population requires more parliamentary representation. A commision is set up to set new electorate boundaries is set up

--in October President Johnson visits Wellington where PM Joh gushes about the strong US-American relationship, calls the Vietnam War a "crusade" and denounces Nordmeyer's Labour as a "Red Fed Marxist-Lesbian Conspiracy". Privately LBJ tells Lady Bird while leaving on Air Force One that Petersen was "nuttier then squirrel shit".

--Despite this and growing opposition to the war the perceived instability in the Labour Party gives Joh and the National's a narrow 1 seat majority. Nordmeyer resigns and Hugh Watt is elected Labour leader virtually unopposed

1967:
--The electoral commision delivers its report redrawing the NZ political map: of the 81 parliamentary seats only 27 are in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch (Labour territory) while the remaining 54 are in rural and regional centre's where the National Party has its base. The commision also recommends the abolition of Maori Seats which the government also takes up without a vote in Parliament

--Also introduced in 1967 is the Maori Affairs Amendement act which allowed the crown to compulsorily purchase "uneconomic" land from Maori. Massive protests begin but Prime Minister Petersen, with experience from the 1951 protests, declares a state of emergency and bans protests without a permit with Petersen famously declaring "Don't bother applying for a permit, you won't get one-that's the government policy now!" (4)

--The New Zealand Pound is phased out with the New Zealand Dollar and decimalised currency replacing the old British system of pounds, shillings and pence

1968:
--A free trade agreement is reached with Australia. Over the coming years similar agreements will be signed with Japan, the United States and Great Britain

--The Wahine Disaster occurs in the Cook Strait with 53 lives lost and government safety laws questioned although independent reports by journalists are suppressed under emergency censorship laws until the mid 1980s

--Robert Muldoon is promoted to Finance Minister after the death of Harry Lake. Muldoon is considered to be Joh's protégé and immediately is put in conflict with Deputy PM and Justice Minister Jack Marshall (5)

1969:
--An Amendement to lower the voting age from 21 to 20 fails to pass its second reading in Parliament

--The Maui gas field is discovered, prompting a government backed oil drilling on seabed in areas sacred to Maori further antagonizing them and sparking a huge environmental protest movement that is swiftly put down by police as the state of emergency declared in 1967 remains in effect, most notably protests at Manapouri in Southland where a new dam is being built

--With redrawn boundaries and Hugh Watts perceived lack of charisma National increases its majority from 1 seat to 12 seats dominating regional areas as well as Auckland's northern suburbs. As he enters his 10th year in power Johannes Bjelke Petersen appears to be solidly in control of New Zealand...

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1. In OTL the law passed 41-30 but due to Joh's heavy handed Party Whip the vote goes to a tie in which the speaker breaks as per convention
2. Given Sir Joh's Investment in Hydro electric and other infrastructure projects as Queensland Premier and with the budget in the black during the 1960s wool boom I can see him doing what Muldoon did in the 1970s ten years earlier
3. Norman Kirk's health problems were lifelong and so a heart attack or other health scare in '65 might put him off running for the Labour leadership especially given the aggressive style of Sir Joh as opposed to the diplomatic style of Keith Holyoake OTL
4. These were Sir Joh's actual words when dealing with protesters in 1971 during protests about a proposed tour by the South African Rugby Team to Queensland
5. Due to a later promotion Harry Lake's fatal heart attack is delayed by a year due to less stress. Muldoon's promotion is delayed somewhat by this
 
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Kiwi_Froot

Part 3: Here our voices we entreat...

1970:
--At the start of the year Hugh Watts is deposed as Labour Leader and replaced by the relatively young, liberal Bob Tizard who quickly surged among young voters due to his anti war views and reconciliatory approach to worsening race relations

--Due to the perceived wowserism in New Zealand under Joh and fears of government corruption with construction contracts Melbourne is awarded the 1974 Commonwealth Games over Christchurch.

--Due to a slump in opinion polls and seeing no other way to become Prime Minister other then a caucus room coup Jack Marshall resigns as Justice Minister and with the assistance of Duncan McIntyre and Brian Talboys launches an attempt at the National Leadership with Petersen scraping by with a single vote (although the conspicuous absence known Anti Petersen MPs George Gair and Eric Holland makes the actual result somewhat murky).

--Muldoon is promoted to Deputy Prime Minister and Roy Jack appointed Justice Minister. Talboys is also replaced as Education Minister by first term Invercargill MP Norman Jones(1)

1971:
--Labour Leader Bob Tizard visits China and meets with Mao Zedong and others as part of a diplomatic trip. Petersen immediately pounces calling Tizard in a press conference a "Tankie want to be, determined to push oriental socialism on our sacred land"

--Despite protests in a calculated political move Petersen allows the South African Rugby Team to tour New Zealand hoping that the tour games in regional towns will result in an uptick in public support

--In another bid to take oxygen away from Tizard in July Petersen announces that NZ troops will withdraw from Vietnam by the end of 1971. Emergency laws are also relaxed allowing for protests (albeit with government permission)

1972:
--Nga Tamatoa presents a petition with 33,000 signatures calling for the teaching of the Maori Language to Parliament. Petersen jokes afterwards that it'll make "great mulch for the farmpatch"

--In a bitter election contest Petersen and Tizard go head to head in the first televised election debate moderated by Dougal Stevenson with Petersen attacking Labour's planned Superannuation scheme and with National playing its now infamous "dancing cossacks" ad during the half time ad break(2)

--In an upset National manages to retain a barebones 2 seat majority with narrow wins in Gisborne and Rotorua by less then 300 votes each keeping Faulkner out of government


1973:
--Despite the protests of Finance Minister Muldoon Petersen announces an introduction of Labour's Superannuation scheme. It would later be revealed that many managers and board members of this Superannuation Fund would be some of Joh's closest business associates and friends, most notably South Canterbury businessman Alan Hubbard and property developer Owen Glenn

--The New Zealand Day Act, making 26th September a public holiday, is passed into law by the National Government over the objections of some who wanted February 6th (3)


--In late October OPEC doubles oil prices instantly triggering a global economic crisis. In a press conference Sir Joh states that thanks to think big fully electrifying the North Island Rail network as well as exploiting offshore natural gas and oil New Zealand will weather the storm famously telling reporter Ian Templeton "Don't you worry about that!" when asked about the cost of energy increasing

1974:
--an amendment by Labour MP Arthur Faulkner for sending the NZ Navy to Mororoa Atoll in protest of French nuclear tests is laughed at by National Party frontbenchers

--Meanwhile across the ditch Gough Whitlam managed to fill a routine senate vacancy caused by the appointment of Vince Gair as Ambassador to Ireland. Whitlam and Premier Ron Camm accepts the Prime Minister's choice of Mal Colston, staving off the threat of an early election.


1975:
--Riots break out at Orewa near Auckland after Petersen orders police to break up the "land march" lead by Maori rights activist Whina Cooper

---The election campaign of 1975 is a more bitter rematch of '72 with Tizard chastising Petersen over his long period in office and adoption of the Super scheme while Petersen bragged about his economic accomplishments saying the economy was doing better then other OECD countries. The result on election night was the first hung Parliament since 1936 with the National Party on 43 seats, Labour on 41, the resurgent Social Credit Party on 2 seats and the Values Party lead by the young activist Jeanette Fitzsimmons narrowly carrying Coromandel. After some negotiations Social Credit leader Bruce Beetham agreed to confidence and supply with Petersen's Nationals.

---Meanwhile in Australia Gough Whitlam is able to narrowly win the 1975 Federal Election over Billy Snedden who is consequently rolled in a leadership spill by James Killen who emerges as a compromise between Snedden and Fraser's factions


---In Libya Maori activist Tame Iti and Black Power gang leader Lani Clark meet with Libyan Dictator Mummar Gaddafi who, like his support for the IRA and PLO, are sympathetic to the "anti colonist" agenda the two share and agrees to provide them weapons and money for their new movement to be called "Rama" (Te Reo for "enlightenment")


1976:
--In a statement to the press in April that year Bjelke Petersen announces that a nuclear power plant at Te Kawau Point will be built with a tentative "turn on" date in 1983(4)

--Tame Iti and Lani Clark undertake training in Moscow along with a dozen other mainly young and Maori activists. What they do not know is that British intelligence has passed on details of their training and meeting to the New Zealand SIS and Prime Minister Petersen is aware of their plans

--Many cabinet members grow increasingly frustrated with the seemingly authoritarian "troika" in cabient of Prime Minister Petersen, Finance Minister Muldoon and Education Minister Jones where it seems all the major decisions are made however given the longevity of Petersen's premiership and the demotion of many of Jack Marshall's compatriots no viable challenger can be found within the ranks of the National Party. In 1977 however things begin to take a turn that will upend New Zealand Politics forever...

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(1) Instead of 1975, Kirk wins the National Party nomination for Invercargill in 1969 over John Chewings. Jones for those outside New Zealand was a notorious homophobe who during the 1986 debate on decriminalizing homosexuality told protesters to "go back into the sewers where you come from"

(2) National played this ad famously in 1975 although a more media savvy and ruthless Joh would probably make similar ads if fighting an election

(3) in OTL the "New Zealand Day Act" made Waitangi Day, the anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, a national holiday. 26th of September is the day NZ became a Dominion and given Sir Joh's poor race relations record in Queensland and monarchism OTL it is changed

(4) in OTL Tame Iti allegedly tried to form a militia group called "Rama" in the mid 2000s until a series of controversial police raids stopped the alleged plot amid considerable controversy of the use of anti terror laws and the perceived seriousness of the threat

(5) a Nuclear Power Plant at this site was actually considered by the Muldoon Government and blueprints are even available online. However the early 1980s economic crisis put a halt to the scheme and NZs nuclear free policy since the mid 80s has stopped any chance of a revival
 

Jellico

vetinari said:
Joh fated to remain in New Zealand and run his corrupt affairs there, rather than Australia? Great!

Tell me, does he still develop his own dialect when "feeding the chooks" as he called his press conferences? No one could understand what he meant when employed his doubletalk.
Click to expand...
Don't you worry about that.
 

vetinari

TheLoneAmigo said:
Good grief, Joh for New Zealand is a dark concept. Not sure NZ will emerge as well as Queensland after it.
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Queensland did, though. I hope that this Joh is just as unsuccessful at dismantling democracy as was our Joh was in Queensland. It was a close run thing, indeed.
 
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Titanium49

Kiwi_Froot said:
Meanwhile across the ditch Gough Whitlam managed to fill a routine senate vacancy caused by the appointment of Vince Gair as Ambassador to Ireland. Whitlam and Premier Ron Camm accepts the Prime Minister's choice of Mal Colston, staving off the threat of an early election.
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The Gair Affair was actually much more complicated than that. In the 1950s Labor split & the conservative rebels formed the Democratic Labor Party or DLP. The DLP became fiercely Anti-Labor & preferenced the coalition in the preferential voting system. At that time, Australia had 60 senators, 10 from each state. 5 senators were elected every 3 years for a 6 year term. In Queensland, the 5 senators elected for the 1/7/1971 to 30/6/1977 were 2 coalition, 2 Labor & Vince Gair for the DLP. Another election was planned on 18/5/1974 for 5 new senators from all states. After the December 1972 election where Whitlam was elected, the DLP held the balance of power in the senate & mainly voted with the coalition. Many Labor initiatives were blocked in the senate.

With the half-senate election in May 1974, Labor had a small chance of gaining control of the senate, providing they won 3/5 seats in most states. But they were only ever going to win 2/5 in Queensland. The Australian constitution written in the 1890s, provided for the state parliament to replace the senator who had died or resigned, & a convention developed that they would be replaced by a member of the same party. But the appointed senator did not serve out the remainder of that senator's term; they merely served until the next House of Representatives or Senate election, when a special election occurred. Herein lay the loophole that Gough tried to exploit with Vince Gair.

For example, in the 1965 senate election in South Australia, Labor won 3/5 seats & Liberal 2/5. One of the Liberals died in 1968 & was duly replaced by the South Australian parliament by another Liberal. But the constitution required a special election to occur with the 1969 federal election which Labor won. Labor then held 4/5 of the 1965-1971 South Australian senate positions.

So if Vince Gair resigned from the Senate in April 1974 to become Ambassador to Ireland, the Queensland parliament would replace him with another DLP senator, but that Senator would only serve until 30/6/1974, with the 18/5/1974 senate election for Queensland being for 6 senators rather than 5. 5 senators would split 3 coalition/2 Labor but 6 senators would split 3/3. An anti-Labor senator would be replaced by a Labor senator.
 

Kiwi_Froot

vetinari said:
Queensland did, though. I hope that this Joh is just as unsuccessful at dismantling democracy as was our Joh was in Queensland. It was a close run thing, indeed.
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My plan in writing this is for PM Joh's legacy to be as complex, if not moreso, then his legacy in OTL

Positives: None of the economic turmoil that New Zealand experienced in the 1980s and early 1990s because Joh gradually reformed the economy rather then the sudden shock therapy programmes that Roger Douglas and Ruth Richardson implemented, the countries economy in the long run benefits and despite the revelations coming up in my next update some older New Zealanders by the 2010s would see Joh's time in office as "the good old days"

Negatives: Race relations in New Zealand and the liberalizing of New Zealand society is set back a generation and New Zealand is seen by the rest of the world as a more austere, bland cultural backwater rather then the more cosmopolitan country it seen as today
 

Kiwi_Froot

Titanium49 said:
The Gair Affair was actually much more complicated than that. In the 1950s Labor split & the conservative rebels formed the Democratic Labor Party or DLP. The DLP became fiercely Anti-Labor & preferenced the coalition in the preferential voting system. At that time, Australia had 60 senators, 10 from each state. 5 senators were elected every 3 years for a 6 year term. In Queensland, the 5 senators elected for the 1/7/1971 to 30/6/1977 were 2 coalition, 2 Labor & Vince Gair for the DLP. Another election was planned on 18/5/1974 for 5 new senators from all states. After the December 1972 election where Whitlam was elected, the DLP held the balance of power in the senate & mainly voted with the coalition. Many Labor initiatives were blocked in the senate.

With the half-senate election in May 1974, Labor had a small chance of gaining control of the senate, providing they won 3/5 seats in most states. But they were only ever going to win 2/5 in Queensland. The Australian constitution written in the 1890s, provided for the state parliament to replace the senator who had died or resigned, & a convention developed that they would be replaced by a member of the same party. But the appointed senator did not serve out the remainder of that senator's term; they merely served until the next House of Representatives or Senate election, when a special election occurred. Herein lay the loophole that Gough tried to exploit with Vince Gair.

For example, in the 1965 senate election in South Australia, Labor won 3/5 seats & Liberal 2/5. One of the Liberals died in 1968 & was duly replaced by the South Australian parliament by another Liberal. But the constitution required a special election to occur with the 1969 federal election which Labor won. Labor then held 4/5 of the 1965-1971 South Australian senate positions.

So if Vince Gair resigned from the Senate in April 1974 to become Ambassador to Ireland, the Queensland parliament would replace him with another DLP senator, but that Senator would only serve until 30/6/1974, with the 18/5/1974 senate election for Queensland being for 6 senators rather than 5. 5 senators would split 3 coalition/2 Labor but 6 senators would split 3/3. An anti-Labor senator would be replaced by a Labor senator.
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Thanks for this. I was trying to keep it as a footnote to show how the Joh regime in NZ has butterfly effects across the ditch and extends Gough Whitlam's time in office given him and JBP were not exactly best mates to put it mildly...
 
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Titanium49

Kiwi_Froot said:
Thanks for this. I was trying to keep it as a footnote to show how the Joh regime in NZ has butterfly effects across the ditch and extends Gough Whitlam's time in office given him and JBP were not exactly best mates to put it mildly...
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That's only part I of the story. It had been announced that the half-senate election was happening on May 18 & that Vince Gair would be resigning to become Ambassador to Ireland. This consequence would be 6 senators being elected in Queensland & resulting in Labor gaining an extra seat. The Liberal/Country/DLP became really hostile to their old mate Vince Gair.

Suddenly, in April in the last 2-3 days of senate deliberations, they changed their tune. Gee Vince mate, you really should give one more speech before you resign. So Vince Gair gave one last speech to the senate whilst Joh rushed to the Queensland governor & issued writs for 5 senate seats in Queensland. Joh had checkmated Gough. If the writs were issued before Vince resigned, then only 5 senators would be elected from Queensland & the Queensland parliament could fill the remaining seat with another DLP/conservative senator until 1977.

If Vince had not made a speech, he could always have signed a pre-dated resignation, but after he made a speech, he could hardly claim that he'd already resigned the day before. Gough then concluded that the only way he would have a chance in the senate was to call a double dissolution. It is probably true that a less devious Queensland Premier wouldn't have thought of it.
 
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