Rudd never knew Burke was a bad boy

Burkes influence moves east; Brian Burke, ex Premier of WA, previously charged and goaled for corruption, is shaking the ALP world as the West Australian Corruption and Crimes Commission releases daily reports on Burke’s control of the WA Carpenter government.

The Coalition in Canberra have spent all day attacking Kevin Rudd over his meetings with Burke and all Kevin can come up with is this;

“Would it have been better for me not to have met with Mr Burke, had I known what Mr Burke was up to at the time, of course,” Mr Rudd said.

“Did I have the faintest idea that Mr Burke was engaged in activities which are now the subject of the CCC, of course I did not.

Sorry, don’t believe him,. Burke is a personal friend of Kim Beasley and Graham Edwards; he is entrenched in WA Labour circles and is one of the biggest power brokers in WA. If Rudd didn’t know what was going on then he should be questioned for not having a tab on the ALPs machinations.

“So therefore, with the benefit of 20:20 hindsight, of course I would not have met with Mr Burke. I had no knowledge of those matters then.”

One wonders if Rudds 20:20 hindsight goes back as far as WA Inc. You remember Kevin? Paper bags of cash in his office safe..goaled for corruption….yeah that guy.

UPDATE: Maybe I missed this yesterday but it’s worth mentioning. Hidden in the text, halfway down the page is this startling revelation;

Mr Rudd said he was unaware of the ban on contact with Mr Burke imposed by then WA premier Geoff Gallop.

Everybody in Australia who reads newspapers was aware of the ban on contact with Brian Burke imposed by Geoff Gallop except Kevin.

Yeah, I believe that!