Rona Joyner, lifelong Christian and confidant of Sir Joh Bjelke Petersen, dies age 99

She was vilified by the political left, sanctified by the Christian right and had the ear of the most powerful man in the state. Rona Joyner made the most of her 99 years, writes Michael Madigan.

Rona Joyner as a candidate in the Kurwongbah bye election in 1997.

Rona Joyner was vilified by the political left, sanctified by the Christian right and for many years had the ear of the most powerful man in the state, former Premier Sir Joh Bjelke Petersen.

The 99-year-old anti-pornography crusader was laid to rest at a funeral at Deception Bay on Thursday.

The lifelong Christian passed away peacefully on June 18 just six months short of her 100th birthday, supported by friends and family and listening to the sounds of the “Prayers for the Dying”.

Her family may well have felt a sense of satisfaction that at least some of what Mrs Joyner stood for has now been accepted by the mainstream.

With counterparts such as Mary Whitehouse in England and Fred Nile in New South Wales, Mrs Joyner was at the forefront of a global right wing push against the arrival of pornography on television, magazines and films in the 1970s.

As the Sexual Revolution exploded around her, the founder of “STOP’’ (the Society to Outlaw Pornography) rejected Australia’s growing permissiveness embodied in the arrival of television shows such as “Number 96’’ _ the sexually charged Australian soap opera which began screening on television screens in 1972.

Rona Joyner, pictured here in 2011, was laid to rest at a funeral at Deception Bay on Thursday. pic: Russell Shakespeare

Mrs Joyner campaigned against many emerging trends in society which are now part of the landscape such as multiculturalism, feminism, homosexuality and abortion.

Her firm commitment to Christianity (which began in Protestantism but became Catholicism in her later years) was a defining characteristic along with her ability to find offence in literature.

She lobbied successfully for the banning of more than 40 books in Queensland, including seemingly inoffensive works such as Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man And The Sea, and had some success in curtailing the teaching of evolution in schools.

Born in 1922 in the Sunshine Coast hinterland, Rona Hull entered a world where electricity was a rarity and lighting was provided by a kerosene lamp.

She moved to Maryborough to attend the Girls State High School and married Harry Joyner, a Customs Agent, before going on to have a family of seven kids, including one from widower Harry’s previous marriage.

As the family grew and moved around the state as Harry was transferred, Mrs Joyner began her political activism which continued until only a few years ago.

She campaigned against fluoride being added to water, rejected any attempt by the government to deliver mass medication and helped protect the rights of parents to look after their own intellectually or physically disable children.

She also campaigned relentlessly in support of the Monarchy.

But it was her stand against pornography and what she saw as Australia’s more broad decline in sexual rectitude which put her in the headlines, often enthusiastically supported by long serving Premier Sir Joh Bjelke Petersen.

Rona Joyner pictured in 1996. She campaigned against fluoride being added to water and rejected any attempt by the government to deliver mass medication.

It has only been in the past few years that her campaign against the desensitising impacts of pornography and the wider implications of the Sexual Revolution have been accepted as legitimate by many who were vigorous opponents of such activism.

Veteran British broadcaster and feminist Dame Joan Bakewell, for example, has admitted that Mary Whitehouse was probably correct in her stand against pornography.

Mrs Joyner never wavered from her more controversial positions such as opposition to gay marriage, telling Courier Mail journalist Grantlee Kieza in 2017:

“The definition of marriage is one man, one woman.

“I think it’s terrible what’s happening now – the way people have gone away from god. There’s more crime, more bad language, more of everything that’s bad.’’

Michael Darby, Patron of Queenslanders for Constitutional Monarchy, said Mrs Joyner would be missed by Queensland.

“Through faith, kindness and sincerity Rona shared God’s love generously,’’ he said.

“She made Queensland a better place, and her inspiration spread Australia-wide and beyond.”