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BOOK REVIEW
| Quentin Beresford, The Godfather: The Life of Brian Burke, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 2008. pp. vii + 294. $35.00 paper.
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| In November this year the former Premier of Western Australia, Brian Burke, will once again stand before an Australian court charged with corruption. The twists and turns in Burke's colourful life show few signs of straightening out, and Quentin Beresford, whose excellent biography of Burke was published last year before the latest charges, might well consider adding another chapter or two for a revised edition. |
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A discussion on breakfast radio last year asked 'is Brian Burke a one-off phenomenon or is he simply a product of our system of politics?' It's an important question and one that Beresford, in this thorough and highly readable biography, strives to answer. |
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The Godfather is structured conventionally, beginning with Burke's early life in a politically committed family. It follows the career of the young, intelligent and charismatic Brian as he moves from journalism into political life, emulating his father, Tom Burke, whose career as a Labor politician is destroyed by the Split. The younger Burke is a brilliant local member. His constituents adore him; his party colleagues are in awe of his commitment and energy. He soon becomes the third youngest premier in Western Australian history. Beresford then builds a fascinating picture of the machinations of small-town Labor politics in the 1980s, and demonstrates with finesse Burke's manipulation of the press and his gradual seduction by the big end of town. |
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In the second half of the book we follow Burke out of office and into the diplomatic service in Ireland, an adventure that will end abruptly when the intrigues of WA Inc finally catch up with him. In 1990 he returns to Australia to front the Royal Commission and is jailed for seven months in 1994. Later, he's jailed again before his sentence for stealing campaign donations is quashed. In the final chapter Beresford tells us that Burke continues to influence the Western Australian Labor Party. That a convicted criminal still commands the loyalty of a significant number of party members is extraordinary, and it deserves examination. |
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Beresford valiantly attempts to explain the power of the Burke phenomenon, at least from Burke's point of view. He identifies the influence of Machiavelli, or at least the popular, unnuanced version of Machiavellian pragmatism, on Burke's own pragmatic approach to political processes. More convincingly, Beresford emphasises Burke's reverence for Huey Long, the 1930s Louisiana demagogue. The model provided by Long is used throughout the book to explain Burke's willingness to do whatever it takes to build a power base, which would, in turn, enable him to 'do good' (p. 39) like his hero. |
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Another reviewer has slammed The Godfather for being too Burke-centric, which seems a silly criticism of a book subtitled The Life of Brian Burke. But I do know what he means; a biography can raise more questions than it answers. By concentrating on one player – albeit the central player – biography can downplay, even obfuscate, the parts played by institutions, ideologies and other individuals. The final chapter adroitly places Burke's fund-raising and lobbying activities within the context of an increasingly under-regulated political system, pointing to political corruption and crony capitalism in other states, inadequate rules concerning donations, and continuing questions around clandestine lobbying activities. This discussion demonstrates how the Burke phenomenon, rather than the man himself, might profit from a more expansive examination than a biography affords. |
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Long's example could be useful here. Demagoguery only works if a sufficient number of people are susceptible to the promises it offers. Long's message resonated because people were already afraid and disaffected through chronic unemployment. Burke's vision and promise were of a different ilk. Burke offered his constituents and colleagues alike the promise of a share in the wealth on offer from the economic boom of the 1980s. His appeal has to be viewed in the context of this era, one of deregulation and growing consumption, in which his own party participated enthusiastically on a federal scale. He may have embraced this new economics more whole-heartedly than others, and taken its permissions to extraordinary, even criminal lengths but let's face it, everyone was at it. Indeed, it is only very recently, with the onset of the GFC that 'the cultural shift' that occurred in the 1980s towards 'a veneration of wealth' (p. 104) has come into question. |
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So is Burke a one-off or a product of the system? The answer, of course, that is he's a bit of both. But, like his career, the quest to understand the how and the why of the Burke phenomenon probably has a few more chapters to go. |
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| University of Melbourne |
JACQUELINE DICKENSON | |
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