Brisbane Politics

      Brisbane grew into a prosperous city as the state's agricultural 
	  and mineral resources were developed, and in 1859 the state of 
	  Queensland separated from the colony of New South Wales when the 
	  new colony  was proclaimed by it's first Governor, Sir George Bowen.  
	  Brisbane was declared the capital and by the 1860s it had developed 
	  into a handsome provincial centre; and by the 1880s the central 
	  business district saw the completion of many of it's fine public 
	  and commercial buildings.

      In 1901 Queensland became a state of the Commonwealth of Australia;  
	  and in 1924, the City of Brisbane Act came into being,  which 
	  operated to combine the number of small local government political 
	  areas into the current city in 1925.

      After the second world war ended Queensland began to move from a 
	  rural economy to a more city based industrial one, and the Labor 
	  government was replaced by a conservative Liberal-Country Party coalition.

      The right-wing Joh Bjelke-Peterson regime dominated Brisbane's political 
	  life from the early 1970s to the late 1980s (helped along by some magic 
	  with electoral boundaries). Corruption was rife and ultimately the period 
	  ended with corruption enquiries that saw the political landscape 
	  completely changed.  Queensland's rapid economic growth has attracted a 
	  wave of internal migration, resulting in over half a million Australians 
	  from other states moving to Queensland  since 1980.

      In recent years Peter Beattie's Labor government has dominated the 
	  politics of the state to the point that the opposition Liberal and 
	  National parties have become almost insignificant.

      In the last City Council elections a former civil engineer, Campbell 
	  Newman, became only the second Liberal to become Lord Mayor.