Joh Bjelke-Petersen juror demands apology from Campbell Newman

THE man credited with saving Queensland's longest-serving premier from jail has demanded an apology from Campbell Newman.

THE man credited with saving Queensland's longest-serving premier from jail has demanded that Campbell Newman apologise for referring to Joh Bjelke-Petersen's government as corrupt.

Luke Shaw, foreman of the jury that failed to reach a verdict in Sir Joh's 1991 perjury trial, and now campaign director of Bob Katter's start-up party, blasted Mr Newman's comments as "shameless".

Decency demanded the Liberal National Party leader apologise to Bjelke-Petersen's elderly widow, Florence, he said.

"I find it a bit rich Campbell Newman talking about corruption when his campaign fund looks more like a developer's slush fund," Mr Shaw said in a statement issued under the letterhead of Katter's Australian Party.

"The dealings of the former Brisbane lord mayor are beginning to remind people of the days of the white shoe brigade, and in spite of that he made a trip to Kingaroy to insult the memory of the town's favourite son."

Speaking from the family property, Lady Bjelke-Petersen said she was disappointed by Mr Newman's comments.

"I am sorry he saw fit to say anything about it in Kingaroy," the 91-year-old former senator told The Australian. "What we ought to be talking about is all the years of Joh's good government . . . rather than talking about any little slip-up by some of the ministers.

"And you can't worry about that, really, that's got nothing to do with the government."

Asked if she would like Mr Newman to say sorry, Lady Bjelke-Petersen said: "I take the comings and goings of politics in my stride, having lived with them for about 60 years now."

The LNP leader broached Bjelke-Petersen's record when he agreed, in response to a reporter's question at a media doorstop in Kingaroy last Thursday, that the government had ended up corrupt. "That's the view of the Fitzgerald inquiry, absolutely . . . It certainly was a period of Queensland's history where a lot of terrible things happened and there was clearly corruption, and it's all there in the report of the royal commission," Mr Newman said.

But he was reported to have gone on to tell an LNP fundraising dinner, where business people paid up to $22,000 to rub shoulders with him, that Bjelke-Petersen had still run the last decent government in Queensland.

Mr Katter, a one-time Joh minister, accused Mr Newman of spitting on Bjelke-Petersen's grave. Mr Shaw said: "When premier, Sir Joh was stabbed in the back by self-serving politicians. He's dead, and it's still happening."

The row will be unwelcome to Mr Newman's campaign, as it grapples with controversy over the property dealings of his in-laws and revelations a developer made multiple donations to his mayoral election fund before a favourable zoning decision.

Mr Newman tried to turn the spotlight back on Labor yesterday, saying developers had contributed far more to the ALP over the past decade than to his side of politics. His spokeswoman said last night that in response to a question from The Australian's reporter last Thursday, Mr Newman had been referring to the outcome of the Fitzgerald inquiry in relation to the then state government and not specifically to Sir Joh.

Mr Shaw, now 40, held out with another juror at Bjelke-Petersen's perjury trial to prevent the required unanimous guilty verdict. It was later revealed he was a member of the Young Nationals and cousin of a secretary employed by Lady Bjelke-Petersen. She said in 1994 "they would have plonked" her late husband in jail had not Mr Shaw been on the jury.