Terry White
White showed ambition from a young age, attempting to enroll himself at Nudgee College without telling his parents so that he could receive a good education.White's working-class family were unable at first to pay the fees demanded by the school, but eventually, White's mechanic father Bill came to an arrangement with the school to waive Terry's fees in exchange for maintaining the college vehicles for free and for providing buses to transport the students to nearby suburbs for sporting events, when required.[3] White was first elected to parliament on 1 September 1979, at a by-election for the seat of Redcliffe following the retirement of incumbent National Party member Jim Houghton.Matters came to a head on 4 August 1983, when Liberal MLA Ian Prentice moved a motion to bring forward debate on the establishment of a public accounts committee to monitor government spending.While this had been approved by a resolution at a Liberal party convention, it was bitterly opposed by Bjelke-Petersen and Edwards was not keen to have it debated, for fear of destabilising the coalition.White argued that the principle of cabinet solidarity, which would normally compel him to vote against the motion, did not apply in this case because there was no official government policy on the matter.[7] Immediately after the spill, White and his new deputy, fellow "ginger group" member Angus Innes, made their way to Bjelke-Petersen's office in the Executive Building to inform him of the new leadership arrangements within the Liberal Party, as well as the need to revise the coalition agreement.Bjelke-Petersen kept the pair waiting outside his office for an hour, in full view of the media, while working on a way to bypass White and the Liberal Party altogether.He tore up a copy of the press release issued by Bjelke-Petersen explaining his actions, a move that was interpreted by the media at the time as White symbolically tearing up long-standing coalition agreement.