Cartoonist Sean Leahy captures the temper of the times during the Fitzgerald inquiry in 1987.

Through the 70s and into the 80s, Bjelke-Petersen brutally — or brilliantly, depending on your point of view — exploited "law and order".

Independent and courageous police commissioner Ray Whitrod was forced out, replaced by Bjelke-Petersen sycophant Terrence Murray Lewis. Whitrod, knowing Lewis was probably corrupt, had exiled him to the bush; Bjelke-Petersen promoted him, forcing Whitrod's resignation. With a compliant police commissioner, Bjelke-Petersen knew that no permits would be issued for street marches.

In the end, Lewis was to play a large part in the premier's downfall. That, and the loopy and ambitious "Joh for PM" campaign, in which a group of disaffected conservatives, main-chance urgers and Queensland National Party schemers promoted the bizarre prospect of the elderly Bjelke-Petersen moving to federal politics and ultimately to The Lodge.

In May 1987, the ABC Four Corners program The Moonlight State was aired. Following on from reports in The Courier-Mail, the program alleged corruption in the Queensland police force, involving payments from brothel owners to crooked cops.

The allegations were not new; they had surfaced from time to time and some news organisations had been forced to pay damages to aggrieved wallopers who alleged their reputations had been damaged.

This time it was different. William Gunn, left, an honest and thoroughly decent politician, was premier in all but name as Bjelke-Petersen stumped the country on his PM campaign.

Gunn had had enough. He wanted the allegations investigated and quickly. He decided it would be better to seek the premier's forgiveness than his permission.

Ignoring a suggestion that District Court Judge Eric Pratt handle the inquiry, Gunn opted for G.E. "Tony" Fitzgerald, QC, on the advice of Ian Callinan, QC, now a High Court judge. Fitzgerald began his hearings on July 27, 1987.

The Joh for PM campaign was all over — a risible result for all concerned. John Howard had lost his first election as opposition leader and Bob Hawke was back in The Lodge. Lewis was the first witness.

Not one to cop the blame, Lewis said five successive police ministers had told him to tolerate brothels in Queensland. It was a neat variation of the Nuremberg defence: Lewis was just following orders.

It was, however, a Lewis verbal; the orders came not from his political masters, but from Lewis himself.

A month later, Fitzgerald heard evidence from Sgt Harry Burgess, known as "Dirty Harry". In the parlance, he had rolled over. Later, Burgess was to incriminate Jack Herbert, formerly of the licensing branch, branch inspectors Noel Dwyer and Graeme Parker (who had collected money for being "defamed") and, by hearsay, Lewis himself. The genie was out of the bottle.

By the time the inquiry was finished and the report in, Bjelke-Petersen was gone. He was forced out of office in December 1987 after increasingly erratic behaviour during which he tried to sack members of his cabinet. The then governor, former chief justice Sir Walter Campbell, neatly avoided a political crisis by telling Joh to reconsider.

Lewis went to jail, as did some other crooked cops. He lost his knighthood and his house; he was bankrupted by the tax office and disgraced. But there are still people who believe he didn't get a fair trial because of the publicity.

Former premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen in 1991 after a jury, led by a national Party member, failed to reach agreement on whether he had perjured himself at the Fitzgerald inquiry.

The Fitzgerald inquiry claimed other political scalps. Ministers went inside for fiddling their expenses and other allowances, in particular Don "Shady" Lane (who had been a copper mate of Lewis) and Lane's colleague Brian Austin (who had defected with him after the 1983 election to give Bjelke-Petersen a National Party majority).

Russ Hinze died before he could go to trial for allegedly copping a bribe from a property developer who had earlier done time for bribery.

Bjelke-Petersen was put on trial for perjury, but the jury included a National Party member who could not be convinced of his guilt. He never faced a second trial.

Two and a half years after Fitzgerald began his inquiry, the Australian Labor Party under Wayne Goss was elected. It had been a long time: 32 years since the great split.

The Goss era began well enough, with the conservative parties still reeling from defeat. It did not take long, however, for the Goss gloss to fade.

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