What you said about former Qld Premier Wayne Goss

The legacy of Wayne Goss as Queensland premier continues to divide, decades after he was ditched from office. HAVE YOUR SAY

Premier Wayne Goss (second from left) visits a hotel in Charleville with prime minister Paul Keating (right) in November 1994.

Wayne Goss’ tenure as Queensland premier continues to divide many, decades after the once-popular Labor leader was unceremoniously ditched from office.

As revealed in newly unsealed cabinet documents, public drunkenness remained a crime in the state for decades longer than anywhere else in the country, after the government backflipped on a promise for fear of looking soft on crime.

Mr Goss, who was premier from 1989 to 1996 and passed away in 2014, ultimately chose to keep public drunkenness a crime after months of contemplation.

And the decision was made in part due to a fear of looking soft on crime, even though keeping public drunkenness an offence went against a previous promise to support all the recommendations of the landmark Royal Commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody.

Wayne Goss with then Brisbane mayor Jim Soorley Picture Courier Mail

Goss was astronomically popular in 1994 with a poll in July of that year showing an approval rating of 71 per cent to opposition leader Rob Borbidge’s abysmal 12 per cent (with the remainder undecided).

But a highly unpopular and ultimately ditched proposal to duplicate the then Pacific Highway through a koala sanctuary at Daisy Hill in Logan, and Townsville-based troops being dispatched to Rwanda, would lay the groundwork for what would be the spectacular crash of Labor after two terms in 1995.

Premier Wayne Goss (left) with senior public servant Kevin Rudd in 1994

Cabinet documents released after 30 years shows the Goss government chose to make public its progress to reduce over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in custody in line with the royal commission recommendations.

The revealing of the documents reignited debate around Mr Goss’ tenure as premier; many insisted he was a good man who made bad decisions.

Others, though, claimed there were wider issues.

See what you had to say below and join the conversation >>>

WHAT YOU SAID

I blame Goss

Bill

Totally incompetent premier with an even more incompetent Kevin Rudd. Together they put Qld back 30 years. The highway would have been finished now and a fraction of the price it will now cost. Wolfdeen dam, well let’s not go there. (thanks Rudd).

RogerJ

He was an incompetent premier.

Theodore

I voted for Wayne Goss the first time around. Lived in his electorate of Marsden. A really lovely man who was visionary and did bring about positive change but the koala road was one big reason I eventually voted him out.

Rowena

I remember the mass sackings of Public Servants as he was paranoid that they may have been loyal to the previous government.

This is the truth

Jdl135

As a policy adviser in health at the time of the decriminalisation of public drunkenness, the line that it was an act of “not wanting to be seen to be soft on crime” could not have been further from the truth. It was clear from the data that jurisdictions that had decriminalised found no change to Indigenous incarceration rates

Samantha

Goss was seen as a decent man but his Government and his Advisers seemed hell bent on erasing everything the previous Government did whether it was beneficial to Qlders or not.

Phillip

In the latter years of the Goss Government there was a promotion and more importantly wage freeze. No EB’s in those days. Lots of ordinary public servants scattered throughout the various burbs of Brisbane were not happy.

Peter

Goss lost the 1996 election due to Public Service anger in all departments at what RUDD as Director General of the premiers Dept did while he was in that position.

Stanley

Will never forget the impudence of Wayne Goss taking possession of a brand new ambulance vehicle from the people of Monto, This unit had been purchased by public fundraising and was not taken lightly by the citizens. Have no idea which brigade he gave it to.

Wider issues

PENDING

What has “public drunkenness” got to do with “Aboriginal deaths in custody”? A ‘commedien’ recently got into big trouble for making that sort of connection.

Derek

Perhaps Mr Goss was potentially the best of our Premiers. Perhaps he was undone by sections of his own party.

Lux

It is still illegal to drink alcohol in public anywhere in Australia. What an infringement of human rights!

kaboom

At the moment unlimited damage is being inflicted on koala habitats along the Great Dividing Range and its western fall by the construction of wind projects. How times have changed. No one seems to care.

Sophie

What Premier Goss did to this State, pales into insignificance compared to the damage Labor did under Palaszczuk and Miles.

Originally published as What you said about former Qld Premier Wayne Goss