[1] A former policeman in the Special Branch, in 1971 he was elected as the Liberal member for Merthyr, an electorate which included the Fortitude Valley where a lot of the then illegal brothels and casinos were located.
During his time with the Police, he had gotten to know Jack Herbert the Chief Organiser of The Joke, and the "Rat Pack" of Terry Lewis, Tony Murphy and Glenn Hallahan well.
In the end Lane and three other Bjelke-Petersen ministers (Leisha Harvey, Brian Austin, and Geoff Muntz) were tried in the District Court and sentenced to twelve months imprisonment for falsifying their expense accounts.
After a while Lane decided he wanted to become a detective, and was assisted when Sergeant Don Becker arrived in Cloncurry-who had a reputation as one of the best "white-collar crime" investigators in the force, but had been transferred to Cloncurry after stoushes with senior police.
In 1958, when Frank Bischoff became Commissioner, he did a Statewide tour and after a visit to Mt Isa, he quickly brought Bauer to Brisbane to take charge of the Licensing Branch, and he moved Hallahan to CIB.
One day Herbert was approached by Don Lane and bribed a small amount each week to avoid raiding a pub for trading on a Sunday (then illegal).
Still only a Senior Constable after 19 years in the Queensland Police force, on 24 July 1971, Don Lane entered parliament as the Liberal Member for Merthyr, which included the Fortitude Valley area.
[9] With Merthyr having a large population of Italian Australians, Lane was fanatical about ensuring he had their support, and used his influence to get jobs for the locals in the State Government.
Murphy later sent Whitrod a letter noting that sometime in 1972, when he was operating a one man patrol in the Hamilton area, he drove along Langside Road and noticed Don Lane in the back yard.
Lane asked Vince whether he would join a small group of people including himself, Terry Lewis, and Tony Murphy to get rid of Ray Whitrod.
The Liberal Party was increasingly becoming divided between the Ginger Group which opposed the Government on a number of issues and wanted to be the senior coalition partner and those content with the status quo.
On 9 October 1978, this (combined with a failure to win many seats in the last election) had resulted in Sir William Knox being deposed as leader and replaced by Edwards.
Matters came to a head on 4 August 1983 when Welfare Minister Terry White joined his Ginger Group colleagues in crossing the floor of parliament over the establishment of a public accounts committee, which had been a longstanding demand.
Despite the likely loss of a majority with the end of the Coalition, Bjelke-Petersen advised the Governor, James Ramsay, to adjourn parliament, allowing him to stay in power at the head of a minority government until the election without having to face any confidence motions from White.
Dr Denis Murphy won Stafford, although his untimely death in 1984, saw Ginger Group Liberal Party member Terry Gygar return.
With the disastrous electoral results, Lane called for the resignations of both Terry White and John Herron (Liberal Party State President), who both refused.
[19] In return for defecting to the Nationals, Lane and Austin retained their cabinet posts, becoming the only two Brisbane based ministers and hence the most influential MPs from the capital.
In late 1986, two journalists, the ABC's Chris Masters and The Courier-Mail's Phil Dickie, independently began investigating the extent of police and political corruption in Queensland and its links to the National Party state government.
[22] Fitzgerald began his formal hearings on 27 July 1987, and a month later the first bombshells were dropped as Sgt Harry Burgess—accused of accepting $221,000 in bribes since 1981—implicated senior officers Jack Herbert, Noel Dwyer, Graeme Parker and Commissioner Terry Lewis in complex graft schemes.
Other allegations quickly followed, and on 21 September Deputy Premier and Police Minister Bill Gunn ordered Lewis—knighted in 1986 at Bjelke-Petersen's behest[23]and now accused of having taken $663,000 in bribes—to stand down.
The first allegations of corruption prompted the Labor opposition to ask the Governor, Sir Walter Campbell, to use his reserve power to sack Bjelke-Petersen.
Bjelke-Petersen boycotted the meeting, and thus did not nominate for the ensuing leadership vote, which saw Environment Minister Mike Ahern elected as the new leader with Gunn remaining as his deputy.
The report states: Lane made some reference in his evidence to private benefactors, including a cash loan by an acquaintance who has since died and cash received from winning bets which were placed on his behalf, but substantially his explanation was based upon inaccurate claims to income tax deductions for expenditures which had not been made and the practices which he adopted to electoral campaign funds and his ministerial expense account.