Bob Carrs selective...

Bob Carrs selective memory

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4561852.html

Carr is up to his ears in all the corrupt ALP deals federally and in NSW. A great mate of Eddie Obeid.

Cant wait for this crook to be given the heave ho in three weeks.

The world needs less Labor

How can ANYONE listen to Carr?

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Former NSW premier Bob Carr downplays his association with Eddie Obeid by pointing out that he expelled the disgraced former politician from his cabinet in 2003, long before the events being investigated by ICAC. What the now Foreign Minister doesn't mention is the effort he went to in securing Obeid a ministry in 1995, writes Alex Mitchell.

Steve Chase, who commands the microphone as a daytime presenter on ABC News Radio, spent 14 years in the NSW parliamentary press gallery keenly assessing the rise of Bob Carr from the opposition benches to the premiership.

In his 2006 book, You Didn't Get It From Me, Chase summarised Carr's audacious approach to massaging the media: 1) Keep your cool; 2) Distract reporters; 3) Appeal to reporters' vanity; 4) Make 'em laugh; 5) Make good your escape.

Following his 2012 political reincarnation as Australia's Foreign Minister, Carr has been employing the same technique that he perfected during his record-breaking premiership.

His inimitable style was on display on February 13 during an interview with Radio National's Fran Kelly when he was questioned about the avalanche of allegations of crony profiteering in evidence at the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).

Kelly: "When you were premier of NSW you personally intervened to elevate Eddie Obeid into your ministry. Was that the biggest mistake of your career?"

Carr: "No, I didn't do that. In 1999 he had support from the parliamentary party to get elected to the ministry."

Kelly: "Did you take action to make support for that?"

Carr: "No, no, the fact is he had support, he had support in the party room and that was something the party was going to have to reflect about. But I'm very proud to say, Fran, and this is common knowledge, that in 2003 I expelled him from the ministry."

So far as it goes, this is an accurate summary of Obeid's entry into Carr's cabinet in 1999 after Labor's second election victory and his summary exit from the ministry in 2003 after the premier's third victory.

But what of Carr's first win in March 1995, when Labor scrambled back to office with a majority of just one seat?

In the lead-up to the election, Carr gave MPs an assurance that all "shadows" who had served in opposition for seven years of hard slogging would be rewarded with cabinet positions in their respective portfolios.

However, the smooth transition to government exploded when media reports revealed that Bob Martin, MP for Port Stephens and the opposition spokesman for mines and fisheries, was to be dumped.

Martin had been active in Labor politics since his schooldays. He was a graduate of the Hawkesbury Agricultural College, had worked for the Department of Agriculture, and had been a manager with NSW State Fisheries.

He had the credentials for the job and he was popular among his colleagues.

But Carr and the ALP general secretary John Della Bosca had other ideas. They wanted to drop him in favour of an Upper House newcomer called Eddie Obeid, a millionaire businessman and owner of the Arabic daily newspaper El Telegraph.

In the background, Obeid's candidacy was being backed energetically by Senator Graham "Richo" Richardson, the former general secretary of the NSW ALP.

Two weeks after the election victory, an urgent meeting of factional heavyweights was held in Carr's office to settle the disputed position. Those present were leaders of the two right-wing sub-groupings, the Terrigals and the Troglodytes: Carl Scully, Morris Iemma, Michael Knight (Terrigals); and Michael Egan, Paul Whelan and Richard Amery (Trogs).

Also in the room were Obeid himself with a watching brief and the Left's Andrew Refshauge, the deputy premier-in-waiting, who attended as a silent witness.

In the words of one participant, the meeting descended into "an almighty row".

Things became so heated that time out had to be called to give the participants a chance to cool their rising tempers.

Scully, a former solicitor, proposed a compromise. We agree on all the positions, argued Scully: why not allow the whole faction - Centre Unity - to decide the final position with a vote on the two candidates? (In fact, there were three because another MLC, Franca Arena, insisted on putting her name forward as well and could not be dissuaded from standing).

Both sides agreed to the Scully course of action - the Terrigals in the firm belief that they had the numbers to trounce Martin. Obeid left the meeting smiling.

A meeting of Centre Unity was called for the morning of April 3, 1995, in the Waratah Room on the ground floor of Parliament House. (The Left's "hard" and "soft" sub-factions had already held their meetings and submitted candidates for the first Carr cabinet).

The atmosphere was electric as MPs belonging to Centre Unity crowded into the room with the Terrigals on one side of the aisle and the "Trogs" on the other. Minutes before the vote, Carr strode into the back of the room and joined the Terrigals. He posted his vote for Obeid and then walked out.

Moments later a phone rang in the room and Paul Whelan, the future police minister, took the call. It was Carr. He wanted Whelan to phone him with the result as soon as it was known.

With all the ballot papers collected and counted, Kevin Moss, chairman of Centre Unity, announced the result: Obeid 22 votes, Martin 16, and Franca Arena 6.

The Terrigals whooped with joy and there was much backslapping and handshaking. Silence was restored when Moss, MP for Canterbury, a former butcher and a Terrigal, ruled that the result was incomplete until there was a distribution of Arena's preferences.

The Terrigals remained buoyant: surely there would be a leak of Arena's preferences - at least one - to carry Obeid over the line?

The room fell silent as Moss stood to announce the result of the preferential vote: Obeid 22, Martin 22. It was a dead heat.

The 22 pro-Martin MPs were: Richard Amery, Jim Anderson, Maree Andrews, John Aquilina, Franca Arena, Bill Beckroge, Mick Clough, Paul Crittenden, Ron Dyer, Michael Egan, Richard Face, Bob Harrison, Johnno Johnson, Craig Knowles, Brian Langton, Ian McManus, Bob Martin, John Murray, Stan Neilly, Doug Sheddon, George Thompson and Paul Whelan.

The 22 Obeid supporters were: Diane Beamer, Bob Carr, Paul Gibson, Deirdre Grusovin, Gabrielle Harrison, Morris Iemma, Dorothy Isaksen, Jim Kaldis, Michael Knight, Faye Lo Po, Grant McBride, Reba Meagher, Kevin Moss, Peter Nagle, Eddie Obeid, John Price, Terry Rumble, Carl Scully, Patricia Staunton, Tony Stewart, Joe Tripodi and Bryan Vaughan.

There were immediate calls for the names to go into a hat for a sudden-death draw. No one in the room had a hat so Moss produced a briefcase, emptied its contents, and placed in it two pieces of paper each with the surname of one of the contestants.

Just before the draw, Moss asked: "Am I pulling out the name of the winner or is the winner the name still in the briefcase?"

It wasn't a stupid question because there had been rorted decisions in the past over precisely the conduct of this process. The meeting decided that the name pulled from the briefcase would win the cabinet job.

By now the atmosphere was heart-stopping. Moss dipped his hand into the briefcase and read the name on the scrap of paper in a loud, clear voice: "Martin."

Now it was the turn of the "Trogs" to celebrate. MPs hugged each other as the room exploded into cheers and clapping.

The attempt by premier-elect Carr, senator Richardson and ALP general secretary Della Bosca to impose Obeid on the new cabinet had failed.

For the record, after the 1999 election victory Della Bosca insisted that Obeid be included in the cabinet "without a vote by Caucus". It seemed that the powerbrokers were unwilling to risk a second humiliation.

Carr facilitated the promotion of Obeid, Parliament's wealthiest MP, by dumping sports minister Gabrielle Harrison, one of the few women in the ministry. In her place, he installed Obeid as minister for mineral resources and fisheries. "Mr Coal and Fish" was on his way and the rest, as they say, is history.

In her February 12 interview, Fran Kelly concluded with this question: "Are you worried that your entire premiership of NSW will be tarnished by the actions of Eddie Obeid given what we're hearing, the sensational claims we're hearing?"

Carr: "No, not remotely, not remotely, Fran. These things being examined by ICAC occurred in 2008. I was gone as premier in 2005 and I expelled Mr Obeid from my cabinet in 2003. So these events speak for themselves."

However, the events of 1995 speak for themselves as well. Bob Carr may have forgotten the circumstances of Obeid's first (abortive) bid to become a cabinet minister. But others haven't.

ABC's Four Corners program The Enemy Within charts Eddie Obeid's rise inside Labor's most powerful faction, the New South Wales right. The program will air tonight, Monday March 11, at 8.30pm on ABC1.

Alex Mitchell is a former state political editor of Sydney's Sun-Herald. His first book Come The Revolution: A Memoir was published in 2011. View his full profile here.