I think old Wayne should lay down and take a bex. It's been almost 20 years since Joh was in power yet they still get in a tizzy whenever he's mentioned. Sir Joh played the media like a fiddle, and alot of them have never recovered from their impotence. Sir Joh did alot more damage to the fragile egos of media hacks in Queensland than he ever did to the media itself. That's why there's been such hatred expressed by the likes of Sanderson.

Of course Sir Joh deserved a State Funeral. May he rest in peace.

Rubbish Bozzie. Wayne presents a coherent and rational argument as to why Joh does not deserve the honour of a state funeral. More people need to maintain the rage (for more than a mere 20 years) against the sort of corruption and self-serving paternalism that Joh embodied

Wayne you have it right. Several people I talked to rubbished the idea of the picket, but given that Joh was found guilty of corruption (remember Thiess suing Channel 9?), as well as the disgrace of his corruption of power via authoritarian means, were of the view that the State should not have to pay his funeral costs.

I was never any lover of Sir Joh's ideas etc, and it is a shame that the Courier-Mail, of all papers, should have quashed the idea of any discussion of this topic.

The Courier has paraded itself in holier than thou outfits since the Fitzgerald inquiry, often playing a more active Opposition than the paid one, and should have been honest and grown up enough to have allowed the debate.The Courier hasn't wanted to acknowledge its past pre-Fitzgerald, the least it can do is allow different views to be expressed now

Well I for one felt sick in the guts every time I read or saw yet another sycophantic TV news story on coverage of Jack-boots Joh -before and now after his death.

It was simply nauseating to hear and watch them all fawning over one of this countries most corrupt and fascist politicians.

It’s an interesting phenomenon here in Queensland and one that hardly gets debated. What am I on about? Well it seems that even the most incoherent people from within our community and who stick their hand up for political office get treated like idols.

It the same ‘pick the village idiot syndrome’ that is plaguing the USA in their selection of Presidents but ours has a distinctly Queensland flavor.

Sanderson is right to criticize how dumbed-down we have become because the Courier Mail refuses to engage in and mediate constructive debate.

The scariest thing for me is that the last week or so of media coverage has created yet another batch of 18-25 old Queenslanders who will go on thinking Mr Jackboots was just an old lovable chararacter who built Queensland in his spare time.

The ‘manufacturing of consent’ around this “myth” was not questioned, bought into disrepute, or openly engaged with by the media. Instead he was put up and built up as our very own “dying Pope”. It was wrong and the democracy that has been rebuilt in this state since the Fitzgerald inquiry will begin to crumble again if we do not critically engage with the facts of our own history. Sanderson’s plea for a more rigorous examination of the facts is not a plea to engage in Joh bashing, but a plea for common sense and fairness in media coverage and in how public debate in mediated between supportors and detractors. It did not happen and this will hurt us all in the longer term

Question for those opposing a state funeral for Joh.

Should Teflon Pete get one?

As an employee of the electricity industry then and now workers were treated a lot better by Jack Boots Joh than by Pete and Mackenwretch.
Anybody out there really think Pete didn't know how the energy companies were funding the big dollars which helped fund the last election?

It is so easy to sit back and paint the otherside as evil and ignore the evil of your own side.

Grow up and deal with the curruption we have now rather than spending so much effort on a government long gone (and not likely to return if Qld Nats and Libs keep their form).

Dear Robert,

I feel we should abolish the whole idea of state funerals. When ordinary citizens die their families incur the costs.

As for painting the other side evil, I think the public record speaks for itself.

So when Beattie dies he should be remembered only by his family.