Commentary: 'It was "year one"'

Insiders' reflections on Wayne Goss and the 1989 Queensland election

Abstract

The thirtieth anniversary of the election of Wayne Goss's Labor Party to government in Queensland was marked on 2 December 2019. Considered a landmark political event, the 1989 state election saw the once-dominant National Party dispatched from office after thirty-two years of conservative government in this state. The election of an energetic new premier kick-started a period of purposeful public administration reform and public accountability renewal that many have described since as 'the birth of modern Queensland'. Yet the end of the divisive Bjelke-Petersen era, as Goss's ascent was characterised, was for some an uneasy time of accelerated transformational change. From these varied perspectives, and through the recorded recollections of public figures and senior administrators of the time, this article looks back at a modern benchmark for 'historic' state elections in Queensland.