Opinion: Clem Jones’ beyond the grave push for euthanasia must be stopped

Times have changed since Clem Jones was Brisbane Lord Mayor and palliative care is much improved. I urge the trust he set up in his name to put its money to better use than campaigning for euthanasia, writes Des Houghton.

CLEM Jones must be stopped. You heard me right.

The former Labor Lord Mayor of Brisbane has far too much influence on the current political debates.

He died in 2007 aged 89, so I can safely say he is out of touch.

All that remains of Clem is a life-size bronze statue – which he paid for more than a decade after he died – near a side entrance of City Hall.

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Jones made political capital out of not collecting a salary. He didn’t need to.

He was a surveyor and property wheeler-dealer who got fabulously profitable developments approved from the very council where he ruled like a potentate for 14 years.

Although he didn’t collect a salary he did claim expenses.

Phillip Piperides with his sculpture of former Brisbane Lord Mayor Clem Jones. Picture: AAP/Steve Pohlner

I’m told there were hefty reimbursements although I can’t find any reference to the expenses on the public record. Jones wasn’t the only public figure of the era to milk the system.

I was a reporter on the Gold Coast Bulletin when the mayor and property developer Bruce Small, later Sir Bruce and a National Party MP, went on council-funded tourist promotions interstate, using the trips to flog his Isle of Capri development.

In those days there was no such thing as a pecuniary interest register or a pesky crime commission.

Some politicians considered sideline businesses as perks of office.

Russ Hinze tried to have me sacked when I broke a story that he had to write to himself as Local Government Minister seeking permission to rezone a residential block he had at Burleigh Heads for a high-rise development. His application was successful.

Here it has to be said Jones and Small were outstanding civic leaders who would probably win office if they ran again today. Despite his flaws, Hinze, too, was an accomplished politician who earned his sobriquet the Colossus of Roads for a massive road building program.

Bruce Small, property developer and Gold Coast Mayor.

Bruce Small, often described as a visionary, has a statue in Surfers Paradise that honours his memory.

Jones had no children but when he died he had investments and properties worth around $200-300 million.

He established the Clem Jones Trust as a philanthropic mission.

It is managed in exemplary fashion by one of the state’s most respected lawyers.

Each year several millions flow to good causes including medical research.

Jones also left instructions for some of the millions to be used to promote mercy killing and a republic.

And that’s the part I find a little unsavoury.

“Clem the Magnificent” as he was referred to by Labor colleagues, was determined to dictate policy from the grave.

It reminds of rich people at the end of their own lives who put handcuffs on their children by stipulating how and when they are to spend their inheritance.

Clem was on the wrong side of the political divide to collect a knighthood like Hinze and Small, so I’ll go out on a limb and suggest his dislike of monarchy may be because he was jealous he missed out on one.

Jones loved the pomp and ceremony of office, eagerly donning the mayoral robes and chains of office for a photo opportunity.

Jones left $5 million in his will for a campaign to legalise euthanasia after watching his wife Sylvia suffer a lingering death in 1999.

The Clem Jones mercy killing push is a nice fit for the incumbent Labor government that seems to me to care more about dying than living as it secretly moves to legalise euthanasia after giving the green light late-term abortions.

Clem should cease interfering. I can’t find which republican model he promoted when he was alive, so the campaign now being run by his trust seems rather pointless to me.

So does the trust’s euthanasia campaign. Sylvia Jones died more than two decades ago and there have been significant advances in palliative care since then.

Brssbane Lord Mayor Clem Jones and his wife Sylvia.

I urge the Clem Jones Trust to redirect the funds to palliative care options.

It seems the Palaszczuk government is using the cover of the pandemic to introduce voluntary assisted dying laws.

Voluntary assisted dying laws are a euphemism for mercy killing.

Some describe it as legalised murder.

The Labor-dominated parliamentary health committee pushed for mercy killing in 2018 but I’ve barely heard Palaszczuk mention it.

No doubt she wants the issue to fly under radar until the election is behind her. Then if she wins she can claim she has a mandate.

Of course if mercy killing is legalised it will be misused as it is in other countries such as the Netherlands where it has been approved as a final solution for mentally ill sufferers who aren’t terminally ill at all. Old people may opt for euthanasia simply because they feel they have become a burden on their families.

Remember how what Adolf Hitler said:

“Wartime is the best time for the elimination of the incurably ill,” he reportedly said in 1939 as he signed the order for the T4 Euthanasia Program. It authorised doctors to kill anyone in Germany who was mentally ill, emotionally unstable or too old to be of any value to the military effort.

Non one should be forced to choose euthanasia because they are old or cannot get access to palliative care which would ease their pain. I’m sure Clem would agree.

Des Houghton is a media consultant and former editor of The Courier-Mail. Contact him at houghtonmedia.com.au