opinion
Paul Murray: Shunned Brian Burke still casts a long shadow in WA politics

Perhaps Roger Cook and Libby Mettam can provide the public with a full list of those people who are banned from talking to their MPs. And vice-versa. Or is it just Brian Burke? And if so, why only him? If it is a wider group than Burke, then it might be easier for the two major party leaders to rule out categories of people who are not allowed to have political representation — or to receive solicitations from them. In other words: who else has been stripped of their basic democratic rights in WA? Let’s go to the bottom rung. How about convicted paedophiles? Or what about those “vile” bikies who appear in the pages of this newspaper when they’re in trouble with the law? In fact, someone once mentioned to me that the bikies could form a political party and possibly pick up a seat in the Legislative Council under Labor’s redrawn electoral rules, bypassing the need for other MPs to look after them. Oh yes. That was the former Labor premier, in a meandering conversation, who had seen the inherent weaknesses in the new system that might allow a multiplicity of single-issue parties to win seats. His mind works like that. But back to the banned list. How about those environmental vandals who persistently break the law to make political points while damaging companies going about their lawful business? Is it OK for Labor and Liberal MPs to receive representations from them? Or don’t their criminal convictions count? So where to draw the line? Or is the line just a circle around one man? And what about those former Labor ministers who got thrown out of the party for their dealings with Burke? Are they still banned, too? People like John Bowler, who eventually was cleared of the Corruption and Crime Commission accusations that got him sacked, got voted back in as an independent MLA after being expelled by Labor and later served two four-year terms as mayor of Kalgoorlie, celebrated in his community. Back in his 1980s heyday, Brian Burke was the bane of the Liberal Party, a political wrecking ball. What did Liberal leader Libby Mettam think she could achieve by going after Burke when the news broke that he had advised the live entertainment industry about getting pandemic-related financial assistance from the State Government? There was not one vote in it. Burke obviously has no influence over Cook’s ministers. They treat him like a pariah. Mettam decided to resurrect a ghost to use as a bogeyman. And he’s come back to haunt her. While trying to make a case that Burke remained a powerful force within WA Labor, Mettam veered into very dangerous territory, eventually leading to his now-infamous “politics spoils things” letter to all MPs. “The simple truth is that I have not spoken to a Labor minister for several years,” Burke wrote. “In fact, I can’t remember the last time I did, and Ms Mettam is unable to point to any instance. “I was never convicted of corruption or anything like it. I was found guilty of claiming travel allowance I wasn’t entitled to — $15,000 over five years that I found I’d received (and paid back) when I was charged. “Unfortunately for Ms Mettam, the same can’t be said of her own front bench. When Ms Mettam declares none of her members would contact me, she is, at best, guilty of not knowing who her front bench speaks to and, at worst, of knowing and deliberately misleading the Parliament.” Burke had set a trip wire and it didn’t take long for Liberal Steve Thomas to blunder into it. Questions from this newspaper’s Josh Zimmerman undid him. Thomas’ real crime was not associating with Burke — but not being truthful about it. The reason Burke mentioned that he was never convicted of corruption — even the WA Inc royal commission didn’t accuse him of it — is that Mettam asserted it on February 1. “Brian Burke pulls behind him the long trail of corruption and abuse of Government funds that was WA Inc, and that trail can now be seen to be running deep through the current WA Labor Government,” Mettam said in a published quotation. “Let’s not forget, three Labor ministers have previously lost their jobs because of their connections with Brian Burke under a previous Labor administration.” If Mettam had a better political memory she might have recalled than a Liberal Federal minister also lost his job over a meeting with Burke. That was because those Liberals were also trying to make Burke a bogeyman. Back in March 2007, Liberal senator Ian Campbell was the human services minister in Canberra, a member of John Howard’s cabinet, and a major player in Liberal politics in WA. Campbell had been approached a year earlier by a lobbyist for the WA Turf Club over a portfolio issue. That lobbyist was former Burke government minister Julian Grill. “I had a 20-minute meeting in my Perth office with the WA Turf Club to discuss a proposal for an indigenous cultural centre,” Campbell said on the day of his sacking. “As well as turf club officials, Brian Burke attended, as did a State Labor MP.” The truth is that Campbell didn’t know Burke was going to attend. The meeting was arranged by Grill, who fell ill on the day and asked Burke, his business partner, to attend. Campbell was collateral damage because the Liberals were hunting for dirt on Federal Labor leader Kevin Rudd, who had courted Burke when chasing the top job, as far back as 2005. With a Federal election on the horizon, Liberal treasurer Peter Costello pronounced on March 1, 2007: “ … anyone who deals with Mr Brian Burke is morally and politically compromised.” Howard was immediately asked in Parliament to rule out any recent contact between members of his government and Burke. He responded: “I am not aware that any members of my government have been involved in any commercial dealings. I will find out pretty quickly after question time. If that is wrong, I will find out very quickly.” Cue Libby Mettam. The next day, Campbell confirmed he had met Burke in June 2006. He was summarily sacked by Howard. “There is, of course, no comparison between the well-planned and well-thought-out meetings of Mr Rudd and my short, incidental meeting,” Campbell said. “I’ve paid a very high price, but it’s a price that’s worth paying because we need to ensure the government is re-elected.” Which it wasn’t. A lesson unheeded by Mettam. When Costello wrote his memoirs the next year, he incredibly described Howard’s sacking of Campbell as “a travesty of justice” even though he had set the “moral” standard to demand it. The continued pursuit of Burke is a form of McCarthyism. No one quite knows the grounds any more. I’ve never been convinced he was guilty of that solitary travel claim offence. Attorney-General John Quigley haplessly defended him. At worst Burke was careless about the forms put in front of him for signing. MPs who similarly repaid erroneous claims were never pursued criminally. The other conviction for which he was jailed, stealing $122,000 in Labor campaign donations, was quashed on appeal after he had served six months. From the 10-year-long pursuit by the CCC over his lobbying activities, nothing of legal substance stuck. It was a political witch-hunt. Liberal MLC Tjorn Sibma courageously — and that’s not a Yes Minister slur — adopted the proper democratic line in his now-public email about Burke: “He is a constituent of mine who is probably being avoided by his lower house representative whether it be the Labor member for Carine/Scarborough or the four Labor MLCs for the north metropolitan region. “There is however no impediment upon him contacting me directly if he so wishes — especially if he considers there is an electoral, legislative or policy matter I need to know about. “I represent him as much as I do his neighbours, family, friends and anyone else who lives west of the Mitchell Freeway and between Rous Head and Two Rocks.” That was a pure expression of parliamentary democracy. Damn the crass bone-headed politics. In the middle of the Campbell affair, former Labor prime minister Paul Keating weighed in, coining his famous line that his nemesis, Costello, was “all tip and no iceberg”. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Keating was no barracker for Mr Burke, “who had once been tipped as a possible prime ministerial rival”. “Instead of leaving him out in the cold, what (WA Labor premiers Geoff) Gallop and (Alan) Carpenter should have done was bring him in simply as a lobbyist and legitimise him like all the other lobbyists over there so all this nonsense goes away,” Keating told the newspaper. “The fact is Burke is smarter than two-thirds of the WA Labor Party rolled together.” And that might be the real problem.

opinionPaul Murray: Shunned Brian Burke still casts a long shadow in WA politics

opinion
Paul Murray: Shunned Brian Burke still casts a long shadow in WA politics