Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Treasurer. Has the Treasurer been notified of any business interest in nuclear energy? What is the role of business lobbyists in relation to economic policy?

Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

For days now I have been hearing outside the chamber that I am going to be asked inside the chamber about what I knew about Mr Walker’s company, Australian Nuclear Energy. Chris Bowen promised to ask me on 27 February, Peter Garrett promised to ask me—

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

Order! The Treasurer will refer to members by their seat.

Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On 27 February the member for Jagajaga promised to ask me. The member for Grayndler said, ‘We will be pursuing these questions both inside and outside the parliament over coming days.’ I am pleased that the member for Canning finally did what the Labor Party did not. As I have already made public, Mr Ron Walker certainly told me that he was forming a company called Australian Nuclear Energy—just as he told the Prime Minister, just as he told the Premier of Victoria and just as he told the Labor Treasurer of Victoria. This was, apparently, some great scandal, so scandalous that he told the Labor Party. Mr Walker is the chairman of the Fairfax companies and he is the chairman of the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee. He chaired major events for both the Labor and the Liberal Party, and he is a very respected businessman. Undoubtedly, he has every right to notify the government in relation to these matters.

It is quite different when somebody is lobbied by a convicted criminal like Brian Burke. Brian Burke has been convicted of fraud and he has served time for his crimes. Brian Burke’s reputation was so sullied that the former Premier of Western Australia, Premier Gallop, banned any connection between Brian Burke and members of the Western Australian government. Indeed, I pay tribute to the member for Perth, who, yesterday, said he had not had a conversation with Brian Burke for a decade and a half. He said:

… if only more people in Western Australia had followed that example.

I don’t believe … that the activities and actions of Brian Burke, which have been exposed in the Corruption Commission established by a state Labor Government, deserve anything other than complete and absolute condemnation.

We pay tribute to the member for Perth for taking that attitude.

It will come as some considerable concern to members of this House to know that, whilst Mr Burke was under a ban and whilst the member for Perth was refusing to deal with him, there was a member of this House who was flying into Western Australia regularly to meet with Mr Burke, and that was the Leader of the Opposition. We know that the Leader of the Opposition went to Mr Burke’s favourite eatery, Perugino, in West Perth on 1 August 2005.

We have had an explanation from the member for Cowan that the way this came about was that the Leader of the Opposition was staying with the member for Cowan. He had nothing to do that night, so the member for Cowan said, ‘Why don’t we go down to Perugino’s?’ And guess who was there? It reminded me of the scene in Muriel’s Wedding when the mistress of Bill Hunter walks into the Chinese restaurant and Bill Hunter says, ‘Deidre Chambers, what a coincidence!’ ‘Brian Burke, what a coincidence down here at Perugino’s on 1 August 2005. I didn’t know you were going to be here, Brian. And while I am here, I will make a speech on China.’ That is apparently what he did. He made a speech on China at the Perugino restaurant.

It was not just that he was at Perugino’s with Brian Burke on 1 August 2005, whilst Burke was under a ban from Premier Gallop, but that he happened to be in Western Australia in May for breakfast with Brian Burke. ‘Brian Burke, what a coincidence! He’s down at my breakfast place.’ In November 2005, he happened to see him at lunch. Brian Burke at lunch—what a coincidence! On three occasions in 2005, whilst a convicted criminal was under a ban from the Western Australian government, the Leader of the Opposition flew into Perth to have breakfast, lunch and dinner with Mr Brian Burke. Those who understand politics in this House will say that it was no coincidence that, in 2005, when the Leader of the Opposition was looking for numbers for his leadership bid, he happened to be going regularly to Western Australia and meeting with Mr Brian Burke.

Let me make another observation: Mr Brian Burke never does something for nothing. Mr Brian Burke has now been fingered by the crime commission in Western Australia and four ministers have lost their jobs because of their contacts with him, because anyone who deals with Mr Brian Burke is morally and politically compromised. If the Leader of the Opposition thought that dealing with him in 2005 did not sully him, it did. The member for Perth knows it, the people of Western Australia know it and the people of Australia deserve an explanation as to what he was doing there.