Brian Burke (Australian politician)

Brian Thomas Burke^[1] (born 25 February 1947) is an Australian former politician who was the 23rd premier of Western Australia from 25 February 1983 to his resignation on 25 February 1988. He was a member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly from 30 March 1973 to 25 February 1988, representing the electoral districts of Balga and Balcatta at various points, and was the leader of the Australian Labor Party in Western Australia from 18 September 1981 to 25 February 1988. Burke studied law at the University of Western Australia for one year before dropping out. During the 1960s and early 1970s, he worked as a journalist for The West Australian newspaper, 6PM radio station, and Seven News Perth. He was elected to Parliament at the 1973 Balcatta state by-election, becoming one of the most popular local members over the following years. In 1981, he became the leader of the Labor Party in a leadership spill. He led the Labor Party to its first election victory since 1971 at the 1983 Western Australian state election, defeating the Liberal-National government of Ray O'Connor.

His achievements as Premier include the reopening the Fremantle railway line, abolishing capital punishment, banning nuclear power, and implementing electoral reform. He was also at the centre of the WA Inc scandal, in which his cosy relationships with entrepreneurs led the state to losing hundreds of millions of dollars. This included providing a $150 million guarantee to the Rothwells bank following the October 1987 stock market crash. A year later, Rothwells went into liquidation.

Burke resigned as Premier and as a member of Parliament exactly five years after taking office, while still having a high popularity. He was succeeded by Peter Dowding, who went on to win the 1989 state election. In June 1988, he was appointed a Companion to the Order of Australia. Burke then became the Australian Ambassador to Ireland and the Australian Ambassador to the Holy See. He resigned from those positions in 1991, having to face the WA Inc royal commission. Although not found criminally responsible for anything relating to WA Inc, the royal commission discovered that he had falsely claimed $17,000 from a parliamentary travel account between 1984 and 1986. In July 1994, he was sentenced to two years in prison, but was released on parole after having served seven months. In April 1995, he was stripped of his Order of Australia honour. In March 1997, he was found guilty of stealing $122,585 in campaign donations to the Labor Party. He was sentenced to three years jail, but served six months before the conviction was quashed on appeal.

In the 2000s and early 2010s, Burke continued to maintain his Labor party contacts and parliamentary influence, using them to further his career as a pro-business lobbyist. He worked both sides of politics in partnership with disgraced former ministerial colleague Julian Grill and assisted by former senator Noel Crichton-Browne.^[2]