AAP General News (Australia)
12-08-2006
WA: Brian Burke's incredible influence exposed
By Adam Gartrell
PERTH, Dec 7 AAP - Blackmail and intimidation, secret phone calls, hidden agendas and
shady dealings between politicians, public servants and private powerbrokers.
It sounds like the world of intrigue described in All The King's Men, the classic novel
about US politics in the thoroughly corrupt 1930s.
But it seems the description applies equally to Western Australia in 2006, where the
central character is not a wily southern governor but Brian Burke, the Machiavellian former
premier turned powerful political lobbyist.
Burke, who was jailed in 1994 for rorting travel expenses, was pushed back into the
headlines in October when it first emerged he would be called to give evidence at a Corruption
and Crime Commission (CCC) inquiry.
The CCC was investigating allegations of misconduct by Canal Rocks and its proponents,
a company which wants to build a $330 million beachside tourism development in the state's
south west.
It was initially thought Burke, who worked as a lobbyist for Canal Rocks for several
years, would be only a peripheral figure in the inquiry.
But it quickly became clear Burke was in fact central to the investigation: over the
following weeks, the CCC shone a light into the dark corners of his lobbying activities
and his reputation has been shredded by the exposure.
The evidence has painted Burke as an incredibly well-connected and conniving puppet
master, prepared to use all manner of underhand tactics to further his clients' interests,
and blackmail and threaten anyone who who stood in his way.
First, the inquiry was told it was Burke who arranged to use a dormant lobby group
as a "conduit" for campaign funds from Canal Rocks to pro-development - or at least malleable
- local government candidates in the area.
The evidence gradually piled up of Burke's remarkably widespread influence over senior
bureaucrats and other public servants, councillors and council candidates.
Then came the explosive evidence which emerged during the testimony last month of then-Small
Business Minister Norm Marlborough.
Burke's long-time friend, Marlborough was called to testify after it emerged he had
received an undisclosed $5,000 election donation from the director of Canal Rocks.
But the CCC wanted to talk to him about something else: namely the "special phone"
he bought to privately communicate with Burke.
As revealed in a series of tapped phone recordings, Marlborough took instructions from
Burke about how to respond to parliamentary questioning and agreed to appoint Burke's
choice to a government board.
The calls confirmed the state opposition's long-held belief that Marlborough was Burke's
"mouthpiece" in government.
The revelations forced Marlborough out of parliament and Burke out of the ALP.
They also sparked a witch-hunt: Accusations abounded about Burke's influence over other
MPs and public servants.
WA Premier Alan Carpenter added to the furore, declaring Burke had "friends everywhere".
This week, during further CCC hearings, more evidence emerged of Burke's power and influence.
Upper house MP Adele Farina told the CCC how Burke had approached her to help him push
Canal Rocks' interests.
But instead of becoming another Burke lackey, Farina says she stood up to the powerful
"bully", and subsequently fell victim to his wrath.
When she was preparing to seek re-endorsement for her seat for the 2004 election, Farina
says Mr Burke told her in no uncertain terms her "pre-selection was at risk".
Burke told her he and his powerful right faction, instrumental in getting her pre-selected
in 2001, no longer supported her.
The only way to win back that support, he told her, was to be "more helpful".
If it were not for a one-off deal between then-premier Geoff Gallop and the ALP National
Executive, Farina believes Burke's influence would almost certainly have seen her ousted.
Farina says Burke also pressured her into withdrawing her nomination for a parliamentary
secretary position because he wanted somebody else.
Farina's evidence demonstrated there were limits to Burke's influence, and not everyone
was prepared to do his bidding.
But it also showed he was prepared to punish those he was unable to influence.
Burke himself has denied any wrongdoing.
He reappeared this week and skilfully "clarified" his previous evidence without once
admitting culpability in anything inappropriate.
He was even so bold as to attack the CCC, saying his business had collapsed and long-term
friends now shunned him as a result of its investigation.
The political outlook of his children, particularly his ambitious daughter Sarah Burke,
had also been damaged by the evidence, he declared.
"It may be, sir, that these penalties are justified by what has been led (led) in evidence
at this commission, but I don't think they are," he said.
As counsel assisting the inquiry Stephen Hall said in his closing address, a number
of people questioned by the CCC had displayed "idiosyncratic" standards of what is appropriate,
standards markedly at odds with the general public.
Their refusal to accept that misconduct had occurred was at least self-serving and
"at worst a cynical attempt to deny what is abundantly clear on any fair assessment of
the evidence", he said.
"Where lobbying extends beyond the presentation of a client's position and is accompanied
by requests for favours, the seeking of special treatment or, in the worst case, by threats
of adverse consequences for the decision-maker unless they comply with the lobbyists demands
it crosses a clear line," Mr Hall said.
"Conduct of this type leads inexorably to misconduct of the most serious type."
The Canal Rocks inquiry is now over, but the CCC has announced it will now investigate
broader misconduct by public officials, with more public hearings to come next year.
Burke will undoubtedly be a central figure in that inquiry as well while more disturbing
details of behind-the-scenes influence seem sure to emerge.
After the past six weeks however, it can now reasonably be assumed that influence is
finally over.
AAP ag/it/bwl
KEYWORD: BURKE (AAP NEWSFEATURE) (FILE PIX AVAILABLE)
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