Introducing the new Queensland premier – me!

In 1976 I had the growing desire to start my own Company, to walk into a room where everyone paid attention to me, to be a millionaire by the time I was 30 and retired on my superyacht by my 40^th. A grand plan, but sitting in the erratic weather patterns of Melbourne working for the Govt shipping line, ANL, I spent months pondering where to start my empire. As my job involved interstate travel to most main ports, I did walk the ground and carefully weighed up the alternatives.

I concluded that Western Australia and Queensland were the best options and both States had a population of just over 1 million.

Queensland however, had recently elected a bold leader Joh Bjelke Petersen, a relatively uneducated man that left school at 13 when his father died, to work on the family farm. This visionary mover and shaker Premier had just abolished death duties, was confronting the unions and there were early signs that he would make his state rock and roll and for 19 years he did just that !

He was the deciding choice for me, so I headed north on my old yacht and set up at Main Beach on the Gold Coast where they were talking about building a Marina next to the Southport Yacht Club, a male only domain.

The first order of business was to get women into the yacht club, and along with some friends, we upset the Commodore and his wingmen by changing the rules.

South east Queensland at that time was a great place to start my business, and I had the privilege of meeting that outstanding Premier at a "free breakfast" small gathering 3 years into my venture, where he addressed 15 of us as the "future of Queensland". I thought at the time how could he possibly know what I was doing? Nevertheless as an apolitical workaholic, I became an immediate convert to the National Party.

I met Joh on other occasions, the last time just one on one, which I considered a real privilege.

Fifty years on from the start, I am still here, having stumbled a couple of times, and even had a distraction to my business with a crack at state politics in 2015. This resulted in me being soundly thrashed by Labor and the Greens, as I was promoting evil and nasty policies such as a Gold Coast Cruise terminal, elimination of payroll tax, cutting red, green and black tape for small and medium businesses.

But Joh was right in his early prediction, and our Queensland company did prosper with customers in 47 countries and achieving 10 international awards

Western Australia and Queensland, like their AFL teams, are still the Nation's best options, and despite having recently lost $200 backing the Fremantle Dockers while my jaw dropped watching Wharfie Time being called too early, they allowed me back into WA last week. The State, especially the shipbuilding and maritime activities around Henderson, Kwinana and Garden Island is rocking and rolling, and good on them and not bad for a Labor State !

Queensland on the other hand has its S&P credit rating dropped, is imitating Labor Lite predecessors and urgently needs a bold leader as it doesn't have one.

Having investigating the possibility of creating a younger clone of Stuart Ballantyne, a smart Aleck but now with the experience of 10 burnt fingers (but never the same one twice), what would I do if I was the Premier of Queensland ?.