Brian Burke says federal Labor ‘rudderless and shambolic’

Disgraced former WA premier Brian Burke has sought to intervene in the federal election campaign, lashing his former Labor Party as rudderless and shambolic at the federal level.

Former WA premier Brian Burke has lashed his former Labor Party as rudderless and shambolic at the federal level. Picture: Colin Murty/The Australian

Disgraced former Western Australian premier Brian Burke has sought to intervene in the federal election campaign, lashing his former Labor Party as rudderless and shambolic at the federal level.

Mr Burke on Sunday said of the Albanese government: “There have been so many mistakes that it’s hard to rank them.”

The twice-jailed former premier’s reappearance is likely to be uncomfortable for WA Premier Roger Cook and Anthony Albanese, who know Mr Burke has the potential to be political poison for both sides of politics and ministers at state and federal level.

MPs in Perth and Canberra were banned from dealing with Mr Burke after WA’s Corruption and Crime Commission laid bare his extraordinary reach as a lobbyist two decades ago. He was not convicted of any charges resulting from those hearings, and he is known to continue to talk to key figures in politics and business.

“Many worry about the rudderless, shambolic and thoroughly confusing government response to the problems in the Middle East. Who among us would ever have believed the multicultural community we boast about would be riven by this imported bitterness,” Mr Burke said.

“Perhaps firebombing St Mary’s or St George’s cathedrals would have more vividly brought home the problem for all of us in the arson attack on the synagogue in Melbourne.

“Graffitied slogans attacking Catholics and Anglicans instead of Jews would round things off nicely to underline the one thing that’s crystal clear – the terrible damage to our community of the lack of consistent, cogent and decisive leadership. And that includes the proper policing of racist and religious attacks.”

Mr Burke was a television news reporter for Channel 9 in Perth before he became premier during the WA Inc era in the 1980s. His government got close to high-flyers such as Alan Bond, raising concerns about corruption. A royal commission followed and in 1994 Mr Burke was jailed for two years over a travel rort. In 1997 he was jailed again for stealing $122,585 in campaign donations; however, the convictions were quashed on appeal.

Mr Burke rebuilt a career as a highly effective lobbyist in the early 2000s but the Corruption and Crime Commission hearings into his business cruelled the Gallop government.

Kevin Rudd. Picture: AAP Image/Daniel Munoz

Ian Campbell. Picture: Brad Wagner

During the 2007 federal election campaign, Kevin Rudd faced scrutiny over his dealings with Mr Burke, and John Howard forced his human services minister, Ian Campbell, to resign after he admitted meeting Mr Burke.

Mr Burke’s commentary on federal Labor includes Mr Albanese’s handling of the proposal for an Indigenous voice and the housing affordability crisis. “Confronting the housing problem by throwing money at it sounds good but ignores the real problem – a decimated home building industry does not have anywhere near the capacity to meet the targets set for it,” Mr Burke said.

“There’s no one to build the homes and all the government stimulus does is to increase prices, starting the spiral all over again, with scarce rentals skyrocketing and homelessness increasing.”

Mr Burke said a leader could be unelectable at various points in their political career “but not inevitably”.

“Remember Tony Abbott. He was so often termed unelectable that it became boring. Then – when the electorate got sick of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd dysfunction, Tony Abbott became electable, and he convincingly won the election in 2013,” he said.

“Within a short period of time, the Liberal Party remembered everything the electorate disliked about Tony Abbott and replaced him with Malcolm Turnbull.

“Those who label Peter Dutton unelectable do so at their peril.”