Burke fiasco gets first Federal scalp

The height of the bar has been set.

FEDERAL Human Services minister Ian Campbell today resigned from Cabinet over his meeting last year with disgraced former WA premier Brian Burke.

Will Rudd go under or over the bar?

Meanwhile Kevin Rudd’s story is being attacked;

“I went, as I said the other day in Canberra, as the guest of (Labor MP) Mr Graham Edwards, so what I said the other day stands,” Mr Rudd told reporters in Melbourne.

“I went purely as Mr Graham Edwards’ guest,” he said.

The Weekend Australian quotes a Perth businessman;

…..(who was) one of Mr Burke’s clients (and) who was invited to the dinner, told The Weekend Australian yesterday the dinner was deliberately arranged and paid for by Mr Burke to introduce “a future leader of the Opposition” to West Australian businessmen, who were his clients, and also to state bureaucrats. The guest said the Labor leadership, including the previous leader Mark Latham, then leader Kim Beazley and Mr Rudd as a prospective leader, had been discussed at the dinner.

Labor’s more optimistic souls hope Rudd can ride out this saga. They point to his honesty in fessing up to making a mistake, and hope the cleanskin image has not been too badly tarnished.

Honesty? I thought he said he only went as a guest of Graham Edwards. He didn’t even know Burke was going to be there and now we hear Burke organized the whole dinner for Rudd…….tellng porkies in the House Mr Rudd?

Meanwhile, as if the Rudd/Burke controversy isn’t doing enough damage to Labour’s chances, Kevin Rudd has firmly committed Labor to scrapping the government’s Work Choices legislation, in an address to a party conference.

Mr Rudd vowed that if Labor is elected to office at the election expected late this year, it would “consign these laws to the dustbin of history”.

Small businesses are going to love that one.

Good week for us conservatives.