Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This afternoon we witnessed the most extraordinary question time that I have ever seen in my 2½ years in the House. Serious questions were raised about the dealings of the Leader of the Opposition with corrupt former Western Australian Premier Brian Burke. Extraordinarily, the Leader of the Opposition refused point-blank to respond to any of these allegations. It has emerged that, within the space of six months, the Leader of the Opposition had three separate meetings with Brian Burke. He had three meals with him: he had breakfast with Brian, lunch with Brian and dinner with Brian. Yet today he refused point-blank to explain what his meetings with Mr Burke were about. What dealings has he had with Mr Burke? What did they discuss at these meetings? What was the aim of him meeting with somebody whose odious public record is plain for everyone in Western Australia to see?

Instead, the Leader of the Opposition sent out the member for Grayndler—a man who is never going to let his own integrity get in the way of cheap political point-scoring. The member for Grayndler threw out some red herrings such as the Exclusive Brethren and former Senator Noel Crichton-Brown. But no amount of mud-slinging is going to change the fact that we have evidence that the Leader of the Opposition has met with Mr Burke. Yet he refuses to explain to this House what his dealings with Mr Burke were about. I find this an extraordinary contempt of this House and an extraordinary contempt of the Australian people.

The daily diet of corruption and manipulation that we have seen emanating from the CCC within the past fortnight brings absolute shame on the Western Australian Labor Party and on the Carpenter government. Four ministers—in a cabinet of only 16 people—have had to resign their posts, and a further one has been removed from her portfolio. This reflects a culture at the heart of the Western Australian Labor Party that breeds corruption. This is a party that are very used to doing deals. It is a party that are used to trading favours. It is their way of doing business, and you only need to cast an eye over their preselection process to see that.

Of course, this process that they use to preselect state MPs is that used to preselect federal members of parliament, and the Leader of the Opposition was obviously aware of the enormous influence that Mr Burke has at the heart of the Western Australian Labor Party. In fact, he was so aware of this influence that he met with Mr Burke three times within the space of six months. I would be interested to know how many trips the Leader of the Opposition actually made to Western Australia during this period. I suspect that the answer is three. Every time he went to Western Australia he felt the need to sit down and have a meal with Mr Burke.

Why would he do that? Why would a man who is obviously ambitious—seeing that the member for Brand, the former Leader of the Opposition, was making no headway as Leader of the Opposition—sit down with the Western Australian Labor Party’s pre-eminent powerbroker, a man whose character and criminality is a matter that is well documented on the public record? He is a man who notoriously abused the position of trust that the Western Australian people placed in him when they made him Premier. He notoriously abused it for his own personal gain and he has gone on to compound his disgrace by manipulating the feeble cabinet of the new Labor government in Western Australia.

So what was it that Mr Rudd and Mr Burke discussed? Why did the then shadow minister for foreign affairs seek out Mr Burke every time he went to Western Australia? I very much doubt it was about emerging trends in China. In light of the CCC hearings in Perth this week, Mr Rudd needs to explain his dealings to the House.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member will refer to the Leader of the Opposition by his title.

Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the Opposition needs to explain his dealings with Mr Burke to this House, and he needs to explain why he went to see Mr Burke every time he went to Perth.

The alternative Prime Minister of this nation feels that Brian Burke is someone with whom he can do business, and that is a serious question of judgement. Does anyone entertain that the Prime Minister would find himself in this situation? Of course he would not, because his judgement and experience would preclude him from dealing with someone such as Mr Burke. Other Labor MPs have come clean. The member for Perth and the member for Swan have both said that they have not had any dealings with Mr Burke—or at least not in recent years. The candidate running against me in Stirling has also ruled out having had any dealings with Mr Burke.

These questions need to be asked of all the Labor members and candidates. Sharryn Jackson, the Labor candidate for Hasluck, is the President of the Western Australia Labor Party. (Time expired)