In 2007, former prime minister Paul Keating told ABC Radio that Brian Burke was “smarter than two-thirds of the Western Australian Labor Party rolled together”.
After this week, I’d hate to see what Keating would have to say about the WA Liberals.
WA Liberal Steve Thomas lost his leadership roles after being linked to former WA Premier Brian Burke.Credit: Hamish Hastie
Liberals leader Libby Mettam learned a grave lesson when a cannon she’d powdered and primed to fire at Labor over Burke’s behind-the-scenes involvement in a multimillion-dollar COVID rescue package blew up her own bunker.
Burke – who helmed the state during the WA Inc era the 1980s – became a persona non grata in state politics after he was caught up in a 2007 Corruption and Crime Commission inquiry into political lobbying that made no adverse findings against him, but cost the jobs of several Labor ministers.
After that saga, Labor premiers Alan Carpenter, Mark McGowan and Roger Cook have all banned their party members from contacting him.
It was this ban that laid the foundation for Mettam’s attacks on Labor.
She was licking her lips when Burke’s involvement in the COVID support packages for the events and building industries and his attempts to contact Labor minister’s offices emerged earlier this month.
It was all too perfect. Labor still had links to their political bogeyman.
In her zest to amp up those attacks, Mettam was blind to the fact that Burke’s political tentacles had reached her own party.
“I’m very comfortable in saying that there is no connection between Liberal Party members and Brian Burke as well,” she said on February 2.
It was this strident remark that made former shadow treasurer Steve Thomas’ admission that he had spoken to Burke on several occasions about Collie’s coal issues, and used him to set up a meeting with a prominent corporate advisor John Poynton, all the more explosive.
It was a huge miscalculation on Mettam’s part to not ensure her own party was squeaky clean before pursuing Labor so fervently on the same issue.
The fallout will be multifaceted.
It has raised questions about Mettam’s grasp on her leadership and the harmony of the party.
Thomas said he thought he could manage the issue himself, which suggests either he did not trust Mettam to deal with his political headache, or he didn’t respect her leadership enough to come clean.
Her subsequent sacking of Thomas as her deputy, leader of the opposition in the upper house, and a shadow minister, causes her huge issues when it comes to choosing a leadership team.
Heading into an election year, Mettam already has a depleted pool of talent to choose from thanks to her party’s crushing defeat in 2021.
Of that team, she already banished upper house MP Nick Goiran to the backbench in early 2023 because he refused to apologise for his links to the powerbroking group the Clan, while two shadow ministers – Donna Faragher and David Honey – will be checked out as they leave politics in 2025.
Thomas had the important roles of shadow treasurer and opposition energy spokesman, and took them up with gusto, so finding a replacement with the same expertise will prove difficult.
On Tuesday, Mettam said she was not considering bringing Goiran back to the frontbench, but his skill as a legislator and capacity for work may force her hand.
Finally, the Thomas fiasco has killed all momentum Mettam had in probing Burke’s links to Labor.
Deputy Premier Rita Saffioti and Premier Roger Cook delighted in lashing the Liberals for their hypocrisy in two separate press conferences on Monday.
The shadow of this sorry saga will loom large over Mettam’s attempts to steer the issue back onto Labor.
Hopefully, Keating isn’t watching.
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
If Brian Burke is ‘smarter than two-thirds of WA Labor’, what does that say about the Liberals?
9
0
27.02.2024
In 2007, former prime minister Paul Keating told ABC Radio that Brian Burke was “smarter than two-thirds of the Western Australian Labor Party rolled together”.
After this week, I’d hate to see what Keating would have to say about the WA Liberals.
WA Liberal Steve Thomas lost his leadership roles after being linked to former WA Premier Brian Burke.Credit: Hamish Hastie
Liberals leader Libby Mettam learned a grave lesson when a cannon she’d powdered and primed to fire at Labor over Burke’s behind-the-scenes involvement in a multimillion-dollar COVID rescue package blew up her own bunker.
Burke – who helmed the state during the WA Inc era the 1980s – became a persona non grata in state politics after he was caught up in a 2007 Corruption and Crime Commission inquiry into political lobbying that made no adverse findings against him, but cost the jobs of several Labor ministers.
After that saga, Labor premiers Alan Carpenter, Mark McGowan and Roger Cook have all banned........
© WA Today
visit website
login
who are we?
contact us
qosheapp
Toi Staff
Gideon Levy
Belen Fernandez
Andrew Mitrovica
Mort Laitner
Rami G Khouri
Ali Fathollah-Nejad
Nikkei Editorial
