Rudd-Burke dinner innocent: Beattie Federal Labor leader Kevin Rudd's dinner with disgraced former Western Australia premier Brian Burke was innocent enough, Queensland Premier Peter Beattie says.
Mr Beattie has defended Mr Rudd after it was revealed Mr Burke organised the August 2005 dinner, with the Labor leader as the guest of honour.
"I think what Kevin did was innocent enough," Mr Beattie said.
"I think most people know Kevin is honest and decent. I think he can come through this. What he did wasn't done when he was leader of the opposition."
And Mr Beattie described the Burke debacle, which has claimed the scalps of several WA Labor government ministers over revelations relating to improper communication with Mr Burke, as an embarrassment.
"I just think Brian Burke and what's happening in WA is an embarrassment to the Labor Party and it's an embarrassment to the nation," he said.
Mr Rudd has endured a week of federal government attacks over his meetings with Mr Burke, who is a convicted felon and a powerbroker in WA mining and politics.
He has admitted making a mistake in meeting Mr Burke three times in 2005, when state Labor MPs were banned from contacting the disgraced former WA premier.
But he says the Labor party leadership was not discussed during the meetings, which took place more than a year before he successfully challenged Kim Beazley.
Western Australian Labor MP Graham Edwards also denies the toppling of former party leader Kim Beazley was discussed at a dinner hosted by disgraced former WA premier Brian Burke and attended by then frontbencher Kevin Rudd.
Mr Edwards said he had always been a staunch supporter of then Labor leader Kim Beazley and knew nothing about talks on Mr Beazley's leadership at the August 2005 dinner.
"I wanted Kevin to attend the dinner and meet other Western Australians because I simply believed Kevin represented one of the faces of the future of the Labor Party," Mr Edwards said in a statement.
"Kevin was a popular shadow minister and I believed that promoting him to my own state was part of our role as MPs in selling the party and our policies."
