Brian Burke

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This article is about the Premier of Western Australia; for the Hockey executive, see Brian Burke (executive).

Brian Burke (born 1947) was Premier of Western Australia from 19 February 1983 until his resignation on 25 February 1988.

Born in 1947, Burke worked as a journalist before entering politics, first for the West Australian, and later in radio and television.

In 1973, he following his father, federal Labor parliamentarian Tom Burke, into politics, winning the Western Australian Legislative Assembly seat of Balga. He became Leader of the Opposition in 1981.

At just 36 years of age when he took office, he became the State's 23rd Premier and the third youngest Premier, returning Labor to power after nine years of Coalition governments.

His premiership was characterised by close associations with businessmen such as Laurie Connell and Alan Bond and arranging joint government and business deals. As a result of the 1987 stock market crash, major corporate collapses including that of Connell's merchant bank Rothwells unwound some of those deals which in turn caused major losses to the State. The corporate deals and the attempted government sponsored rescue of Rothwells became known later as WA Inc.

Burke resigned as Premier before the full extent of the deals and losses were known and went on to become Australia's ambassador to Ireland before being forced to resign as a result of allegations of improper conduct during his time as Premier.

An enquiry, known as the WA Inc royal commission, was held which resulted in Burke being charged with various offences and being sentenced to two years imprisonment. He served seven months in jail in 1994 for travel expense rorts before being released on parole. In March 1997 he was sentenced to three years jail for stealing $122,585 in campaign donations. He served six months before the convictions were quashed on appeal.

Burke has since been active as a consultant and lobbyist for Perth business identities. His continued involvement in State Labor branch politics has been a subject of controversy since Labor returned to power in 2001. Former Premier Geoff Gallop banned Cabinet ministers from contact with Burke, but this was lifted by his successor Alan Carpenter when he took office in January 2006. Burke is still supported by federal Labor party leader Kim Beazley.

In November 2005, Burke's daughter Sarah Burke ran for the presidency of the State Labor party. She expressed interest in standing as the party's candidate for the Federal electorate of Cowan when Labor MP Graham Edwards announced his intention to retire in January 2006.

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