18 Facts About Bruce Bishop

Bruce Edward Bishop was an Australian businessman and politician.

Bruce Bishop was a Liberal Party member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly from 1977 until 1980, representing the electorate of Surfers Paradise.

Bruce Bishop was a prominent member of the Gold Coast City Council during the 1970s.

Bruce Bishop supported landings at Tarakan in Borneo and Wewak in Papua New Guinea, participated in operations off Brunei and Balikpapan, and was present in Tokyo Bay at the time of the Japanese surrender.

Bruce Bishop moved to Queensland in 1959, and initially worked with a local church.

Bruce Bishop subsequently opened a successful menswear business, with outlets in Surfers Paradise, Broadbeach, and Southport, later expanding to include video rental and furniture hire businesses.

Bruce Bishop was elected president of the Surfers Paradise Chamber of Commerce in 1970 - the first of a record six times he would hold the office.

Bruce Bishop was actively involved in the Liberal Party, serving as chairman and secretary of his local branch and as a member of the party's state executive.

Small, a very prominent figure, was considered to be "unbeatable", but Bruce Bishop won an upset victory on Labor preferences.

In parliament, Bruce Bishop was an outspoken backbench critic of the Joh Bjelke-Petersen government, particularly on issues of corruption, and was associated with the emerging "Ginger Group" of Liberal MPs seeking to assert a stronger Liberal identity within the coalition.

Bruce Bishop's outspokenness met with hostility from Bjelke-Petersen and his inner circle.

In 1978, Hinze sacked the Gold Coast City Council, of which Bruce Bishop was still a prominent member, and appointed administrators.

Bob Katter recalled one occasion on which Hinze, following Bruce Bishop having shouted "obscenities" at him during an anti-Liberal speech, physically charged at Bruce Bishop in the party room and had to be restrained.

Bruce Bishop was one of the Liberal MPs that the special branch of the police had under surveillance at the behest of Bjelke-Petersen prior to the 1980 election.

Bruce Bishop strongly advocated for the development of improved infrastructure and transport on the Gold Coast, and gave particular support to the construction of a casino in the area.

Bruce Bishop remained a prominent figure in the Gold Coast business community until 1986, when he retired from the Chamber of Commerce and subsequently retired to Mount Tamborine.

Bruce Bishop briefly re-entered public life in 2004, vigorously - and successfully - opposing the planned sale and redevelopment of the Surfers Paradise Transit Centre and the Bruce Bishop Car Park, the largest car park in the area, and a project he had personally helped develop in the early 1970s to ease car parking shortages.

Bruce Bishop died on the Gold Coast in May 2008 after a short illness.