REMEMBER WHEN

AN open letter from the Gold Coast Bulletin to the newly appointed premier Sir Joh BjelkePetersen.

Dear Mr Bjelke-Petersen, first let us congratulate you on your becoming premier of Queensland. The top position you hold in the Country Party, your rank in the Coalition Government, plus your proven ability as an administrator with your modern line of thinking makes you an admirable choice, we on the Gold Coast believe.

Now, let us assure you that we do not write open letters to government leaders unless the subject is one of great importance.

We feel, therefore, that the matter on which we ask your indulgence is one of prime consequence to this area and, in fact, to the whole state.

It is a subject on which you, no doubt, will be directing intense attention. We refer to the vacancy in your cabinet.

We understand you will be making an appointment almost immediately. It is with great sincerity that we ask you to give consideration to the claim we feel the Gold Coast has to one of the area’s two parliamentary representatives to become a member of your cabinet.

It has been a very long time – about 53 years in fact – since the area had a Cabinet Minister in parliament. Not since JG Appel was Home Secretary and Minister for Mines in about 1915 have we been represented in Cabinet, although in the interim the district has grown tremendously and has drawn the attention of all Australians with its rapid and record-breaking rate of expansion.

Neither Ces Carey or Russ Hinze were appointed to Cabinet in the 1968 reshuffle.