Romania or bust for Joh
Details of a proposed partnership between Queensland and Communist tyrant Nicolae Ceausescu have emerged with the release of the 1987 State Cabinet documents. The then Premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen’s (above) account of the “Coal for the Communists” venture has been released for viewing.
of a proposed partnership between Queensland and one of the Eastern Bloc’s most notorious Communist tyrants, Nicolae Ceausescu, have emerged with the release of 1987 State Cabinet documents.
For the first time, former Queensland Premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen’s own account of the 1987 trip to Romania to team up with the despot in an ambitious “Coal for the Communists’’ venture has been released for public viewing.
On Christmas Day two years later, the Romanian dictator and his wife were executed by a firing squad.
The revelations are contained in Cabinet documents which become public today.
In a state crippled by 11 per cent unemployment, increasingly outlandish schemes are mooted including “the world’s tallest building’’ to be built in downtown Brisbane.
The redevelopment of Brisbane’s Port Office site was discussed by Cabinet ministers who seemed to be wondering where all the “brown paper bag’’ money was coming from, while a space port to rival Cape Canaveral in the US was proposed for Cape York.
All the while, Sir Joh, who devoted the first part of the year to the doomed “Joh for Canberra’’ push, was seen to be losing control of a Government increasingly dominated by deputy Premier Bill Gunn as the spectre of the Fitzgerald Inquiry loomed over Cabinet.
But his willingness to deal with Ceausescu was one of his more outlandish, if awe-inspiring, attempts to make a buck for Queensland.
On August 24, 1987, Sir Joh reported to Cabinet that he had visited Romania.
His official report showed department heads Sydney Schubert and Leo Hielscher, and WA mining magnate Lang Hancock were with him.
Ceausescu was ready to pay for Queensland coal, but not with money.
The dictator had proposed a bartering deal which included Romania giving Queensland oil, fertiliser and locomotives.
“Preliminary arrangements have been made for an initial 2 million tonnes of coking coal to be supplied through the Romanian port of Constanta,’’ Sir Joh told Cabinet in 1987.
“It is hoped that these arrangements will lead to a longterm contract of up to 3 million tonnes per annum, mainly for the Romanian steel works.’’
The deal never went ahead but that didn’t prevent the appearance of Ceausescu and wife Elena at World Expo ’88 in Brisbane.
Paranoid and demanding food tasters at an official dinner, the couple’s security team even pulled guns on Southport MP, Mick Veivers who’d had a few drinks and wanted a chat.