Read on Twitter
First day into Brisbane’s lockdown ... what better time to post a thread nobody asked for! Been a week since release of 1990 Qld Cabinet Minutes from the Goss government’s first full year in office. Here’s highlights from my research for @QSArchives 1/- #qldpol #cabinetpapers
2/- As it happens, 1990 was an eventful year: East and West Germany reunified; Margaret Thatcher resigned after 11 years as British PM; Nelson Mandela was released after 27 years imprisonment in South Africa; the Hubble Space Telescope was launched; and the First Gulf War began.
3/- Domestically, Bob Hawke won a fourth successive election in 1990; Australia’s first women Premiers, Carmen Lawrence then Joan Kirner, took office; Paul Keating declared “this is the recession we had to have”; and Sinéad O’Connor’s ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ topped singles charts.
4/- In Queensland, former Premier Mike Ahern resigned after 22 years in parliament; severe flooding in central regions forced mass evacuation of Charleville residents; and three former National Party ministers - Don Lane, Leisha Harvey and Brian Austin - were sentenced to prison.
5/- Following a summer trial, Goss’s government introduced daylight saving in Queensland ‘permanently’, applying statewide rather than splitting the state into separate time zones as recommended by a review. The measure was rejected at a later referendum. https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/reformist-wayne-goss-failed-to-settle-daylight-saving-debate/news-story/c5ffd16c217efa4ddadbc12450ce564c
6/- Goss’s government approved the introduction of ‘pokies’ to Queensland in 1990, a commitment it took to the 1989 state election. This followed lengthy lobbying from licensed clubs which faced falling revenue after earlier laws to curb drink-driving. https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/politics/queensland/drink-driving-laws-led-goss-to-introduce-scourge-of-pokies-20201217-p56oe6.html
7/- Goss’s Cabinet controversially agreed to destroy records from the Heiner Inquiry, established by the previous Nationals government to investigate matters at the John Oxley youth detention centre. The decision haunted Labor administrations thereafter. https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/politics/queensland/goss-cabinet-knew-it-destroyed-documents-wanted-for-court-case-20201230-p56qw9.html
8/- Early in 1990, Cabinet approved an inquiry into land management and conservation issues on K’gari (Fraser Island) and endorsed Goss’s appointment of Tony Fitzgerald QC to head the review. This came after the Hawke government’s push for the island’s world heritage listing.
9/- Following earlier destruction of much-loved buildings authorised by the Bjelke-Petersen government, Cabinet agreed to introduce interim legislation to protect Queensland’s heritage-listed buildings from demolition while a Heritage Act - finally passed in 1992 - was prepared.
10/- Goss’s Cabinet agreed to redraft and ‘modernise’ Queensland’s Police Act, a reform of policing administration recommended by the Fitzgerald Inquiry report. Cabinet also moved responsibility for police disciplinary investigations to the new Criminal Justice Commission (CJC).
11/- Late in 1990, following a CJC review, Goss’s government fulfilled an election commitment to legalise homosexuality in Queensland, overturning decades of discrimination against the state’s LGBTIQ community. The issue had featured prominently during the 1989 state election.
12/. Records of the 1990 Queensland Cabinet Minutes can be accessed online via @QSArchives’ Archives Search page: https://www.archivessearch.qld.gov.au/search?f%5B%5D=keywords&from=1990&has_digital=true&op%5B%5D=AND&open=false&q%5B%5D=s142&sort=relevance&type%5B%5D=archival_object&utm_source=What%27s%20On&utm_medium=Website&utm_campaign=Cabinet%20Minutes
My commissioned reports on the Goss Cabinet’s decisions and their background context can be accessed here: https://www.publications.qld.gov.au/dataset/cabinet-minutes #qldhist
My commissioned reports on the Goss Cabinet’s decisions and their background context can be accessed here: https://www.publications.qld.gov.au/dataset/cabinet-minutes #qldhist
