Bowler contempt proceedings as CCC fallout continues 28-February-07 by AAP
Sacked Western Australian local government minister John Bowler will be investigated for contempt of parliament over leaking a confidential parliamentary report to lobbyist Julian Grill.
Opposition Police Spokesman Rob Johnston called in the WA lower house today for Mr Bowler's actions to be investigated by the bipartisan procedure and privileges committee to see if they constitute contempt of parliament.
Mr Bowler was dumped from cabinet yesterday and faces expulsion from the Labor Party following revelations at the Corruption and Crime Commission probe into the lobbying activities of disgraced former Premier Brian Burke and former Labor minister Julian Grill.
Premier Alan Carpenter ousted Mr Bowler after the CCC was told the minister had leaked a confidential committee report to Mr Grill, then made changes to it based on feedback from Mr Grill's mining company client, Precious Metals Australia.
Opposition water resources spokesman John Day said there was no choice but to ask the Procedure and Privileges Committee to look into Mr Bowler's actions.
"Following the revelation in the CCC hearing, there is no alternative but for the (committee) to hear from the member for Murchison Eyre and to consider the matter and to make an appropriate recommendation back to this house," Mr Day said.
The motion was supported in the lower house.
It is the first time contempt of parliament charges have been levelled at a WA MP since former opposition leader Matt Birney was found in contempt in 2005, after altering his share interest information.
The committee could make disciplinary recommendations to the house if it finds Mr Bowler in contempt.
Penalties can include censuring MPs, fining them, or in an extreme cases expelling them from parliament.
Meanwhile, despite the controversy, Western Australia's Labor government would probably still win an election held now, according to Opposition Leader Paul Omodei.
Mr Carpenter says the scandal has left his government in peril but Mr Omodei says Labor would still be the favourite if an election was held before the 2009 due date.
"(The government) would be in a good position to win the election if they ran the election now, given the incumbency and given the boom in the state," Mr Omodei told AAP.
"The revelations ... have exposed the state to litigation by companies who have been disaffected by cabinet decisions, it casts a pall over all the cabinet decisions that were made while those ministers were in cabinet," Mr Omodei said.
"We've got a state that's in a mess, it's almost got to the stage where it's ungovernable."
Someone who wasn't prepared to take the risk was Federal Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd has banned every federal Labor politician from speaking with or meeting Mr Burke in future.
"As of now, from my point of view and the point of view of all the members of my parliamentary team, (the ban) is the case," he said.
"In terms of what's evolved since these matters went before the criminal conduct commission in Western Australia, we have had no internal discussion on that, I've just assumed people operating on the basis of good common sense."
Mr Rudd admitted to meeting Mr Burke in the past through a friendship with federal Labor backbencher Graham Edwards.
"I've met with him on two or three occasions," Mr Rudd said.
"Mr Burke has been a long standing personal friend of Graham Edwards, Graham Edwards is a long standing personal friend of mine and it's through the personal agency of Graham Edwards that I've had meetings with Mr Burke on a couple of occasions."
Opposition education spokesman Stephen Smith, who is from Western Australia, joined the condemnation of Mr Burke and said he had not spoken with him in about 15 years.
"I can't recall a telephone conversation that I have had with Brian Burke in the last decade and a half," Mr Smith said.
"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."
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