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Saint Kevin’s mortal sin
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Corrupt, convicted, conniving – and convivial company? Almost 12 months after the issue was first raised the question still remains: why did St Kevin agree to dine with Brian Burke? Last year Rudd said:
Forget about hind - or any other sort of sight. Blind Freddy wouldn’t have gone anyone near Brian Burke because of the stench that’s been hanging around the former West Australian premier for close to 20 years. Burke left office way back in 1988 under a darkening sky. The WA Inc storm broke soon after. WA taxpayers were left with a billion-dollar damage bill. And that was just the start. In 1994 he became the first head of any Australian government to go to prison when he went to jail for misusing parliamentary travel expenses. He was jailed again in 1997 after being convicted of stealing more than $100,000 from the Labor Party to buy stamps for his personal collection, although this conviction was later quashed on appeal. Brian Burke had been political poison more than a decade before Kevin Rudd started dealing with him over a dinner. Why on earth would an ambitious politician from the other end of the country have anything to do with the bloke? Burke has always sought out weak and compliant people – or people prepared to compromise their integrity in pursuit of power. St Kevin has put himself into this latter category – and compounded his guilt by failing to confess his sin. |
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26 Comments
I think that your comment about Gillard’s hairstyle is seriously trivial, I thought this was supposed to be about serious political comment. Please leave her hairstyles out of it!
Who cares indeed. The Liberals’ financial links with Richard Pratt are far more worthy of close examination. They make Rudd’s little dalliance with WA’s Arthur Daley pale into insignificance.
Crikey is getting as desperate as the Opposition in trying to find something useful to say. Go and find some real stories rather than making a mountain out of a molehill.
This is so incredibly irrelevant and boring…. you are starting to sound like the MSM (main stream media)… get some real news going - please!!!
Oh Crikey! two MSM (thanks Lynda:)) in one day. JWH was in bed with every shonk artist in the country. Shrieks of silence. Rudd meets Brian Burke and cries of rape from one bored journo. Give over.
Are we turning tabloid?
Or perhaps just lazy.
Lets have some worthwhile NEWS!
Articles like this caused me to stop my subscription to Crikey.
It’s now sinking to tabloid level. PLEASE, GIVE US SOME REAL NEWS AND IMPORTANT INSIGHTS, not this rubbish.
By how many votes did Kevin Rudd beat Kim Beazley in the Lbor leadership challenge? It was not many & clearly the switch from Beazley to Rudd by Labor’s WA MPs under sway of the Burke / Reynolds faction was decisive. Understand now the Kev - Brian link?
A role of the media is inform the public of issues in the public interest. I think reporting PM Rudd’s dealings with a convicted crimminal warrant such coverage. If it was Howard that had such dealings with Rudd would there be such wailing?
To the stake with him!!! (I mean Christian Kerr). Admittedly, Monday’s Crikey edition will mostly be a bit light on for real stories. Maybe Christian could follow Glenn Milne’s Sunday Tele offering or P.F.S. Ackerman’s
ramblings.
A reminder that Brian Burke has served his time and is entitled to the presumption of innocence unless and until he is charged with and found guilty of other crimes. The media of course doesn’t give a rat’s about this inconvenient truth.
“… compromise their integrity in pursuit of power”? Oh come ON. No one gets to be PM without dissolving a few bodies in barrels of acid. How the government does its job is infinitely more important that the “character” of its members.
Corrupt he may be, but Burke is enormously influential within WA Labor. That is why he’s causing them such a headache and why Rudd needed his backing. Rudd had his eyes wide open. This reflects on Rudd’s poor political judgement.
What rubbish. Lift your game.
In total agreement with David Hornsby. I have stopped my subscription as Crikey is getting closer to the Daily Tele.
‘BURKE’ the name says it all really, doesn’t it? Where anyone gets the idea that political types are squeaky clean- non inhalers of Pot is beyond me. Self aggrandizing, scheming Turds, almost to a man/woman.
Serving the will of the people? - My arse.
It was not particularly smart to agree to meet BB and Rudd clearly is smart. However it is hardly an indictable offense. The real question: Are the emails that have come to light now consistent with KR’s dismissive explanations from last year?
Brian who CARES? It seems that the only people in this country remotely interested in this topic are the Canberra gallery and… no just the Canberra gallery!!! Is there such paucity of worthwhile news that the pundits are reduced to this?
For god`s sake, who really gives a stuff if rudd has been in contact with Brian Bourke, the reason nobody reads the telegraph is because of the biased idiots like ackerman, don`t let kerr`s right wing ideolegy ruin crikey as well .
Oh Crikey! two MSM (thanks Lynda:)) in one day. JWH was in bed with every shonk artist in the country. Shrieks of silence. Rudd meets Brian Burke and cries of rape from one bored journo. Give over.
Write something that matters, instead of the bullshit the New’s mob write.
Let he without sin case the first stone.
Howard was denounced as a liar without any proof required. Rudd is exposed as a liar over several issues yet the left no longer care. Remember Rudd fronted media for 45 minutes over Burke & now we know he lied for 45 minutes about an accidental meeting.
So boring! I could n’t care less…its ancient history.
Honestly, who cares! If Burke had helped Rudd make the move to leader of the Labor party and eventual Prime Minister it could only help his ‘Karma’ in the long run. As for Rudd, thankfully, he’s got better things to do than worry about yesterday’s smear.
REPENT YOU LABOR VOTERS……… REPENT
Christian, please stop clutching at straws and wait until you have something concerning Mr Rudd that is worthy of criticism. Otherwise you risk joining the ranks of lightweight journalists of which Australia already has its fair share.