Mike Ahern

Mike Ahern

Biography

In 1987 Mike Ahern successfully challenged Joh Bjelke-Petersen to become National Party leader and Premier of Queensland, ending Bjelke-Petersen’s 19-year rule as Premier. In Ahern’s nearly two years as leader of the government, he initiated some of the recommendations of the Fitzgerald Inquiry into official corruption.

Mike Ahern was born in Maleny in 1942 and educated at Downlands College in Toowoomba before completing a Bachelor of Agricultural Science degree at the University of Queensland. He was born into a politically active family, his father having served as state president of the Country Party and campaign manager for Premier Francis Nicklin. Ahern moved from the youth wing of the Country Party into state parliament when he won the by-election for Nicklin’s seat of Landsborough in 1968, in so doing becoming among the first university graduates to represent the party in the state’s legislature (former Premier and Queensland Country Party member Jack Pizzey had studied for a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Queensland during World War II). For the next twelve years Ahern remained on the government backbench, although serving as Party Whip for eight of those years and chairing the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education in the late 1970s. In 1980 he was promoted to the Cabinet, becoming Minister for Primary Industries for a three-year period. He was subsequently appointed Minister for Industry, Small Business and Technology – heading the government’s newly-created Department of Technology – and in 1986 was made Minister for Health and the Environment.

Following revelations from the Fitzgerald Inquiry into corruption, in November 1987 Ahern challenged and deposed Bjelke-Petersen, thereby becoming Premier as well as Treasurer and Minister for the Arts and later State Development. Leading the state through a turbulent political time, he saw Brisbane host the Expo ‘88 festival. While Premier, he famously pledged to implement the Fitzgerald Inquiry’s recommendations ‘lock, stock and barrel’; he began the process of delivering on this promise but was unable to fulfil it when he was ousted from the National Party leadership by one of his ministers, Russell Cooper, in September 1989. After the government was defeated at the state election less than three months later, Ahern resigned from his seat in parliament in early 1990.

After retiring from politics he embarked on a business career and later acted as a special trade representative for the Beattie Government. He serves on the boards of several companies and charitable foundations. He was admitted as an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2005.