The making of Peter Beattie

Andrew Bolt: A protester telling porkies about police brutality? Ah, for the old days when such tales were instantly believed, and stamped the accuser as a man of the future: A PREVIOUSLY unseen Queensland police dossier has finally shed new light on the now legendary political baptism of former premier Peter Beattie. In 1971 Beattie, an 18-year-old university student, was arrested and bashed by police during the city’s wild anti-apartheid protests against a visiting South African rugby team. He has always claimed he was persecuted for his beliefs and that the incident sent him on the road to politics. The incident cast Beattie as Labor hero. But the 40-year-old dossier, including police reports, witness statements and medical assessments, alleges that it was Beattie himself who taunted police and sparked the melee outside Brisbane’s Trades Hall. And doctors who assessed Beattie in hospital after his supposed bashing declared he showed no signs of having been subject to undue force by the arresting officers.