GOVERNMENT MEDIA MONITORING UNIT
DATE: FEBRUARY 22ND, 2007
TIME: 5.11PM
STATION: 6PR DRIVE (SATTLER)
SUBJECT: OMODEI – CCC HEARINGS
This transcript is produced for information purposes only. Although all care is taken, no warranty as to its accuracy or completeness is given. It is your responsibility to ensure by independent verification that all information is correct before placing any reliance on it.
HOWARD SATTLER
Wow. Another day in the Corruption and Crime Commission investigations into the business dealings of one Brian Burke, former premier, and Julian Grill, former government minister, and various people in politics in Western Australia. People who are currently ministers, Opposition shadow ministers, public servants, they’re all getting caught up in all this. This is starting to assume the proportions of a WA Inc all over again.
And today, the Minister named, and he was named today, unlike his two predecessors yesterday they… their names were suppressed, the Corruption and Crime Commission has accused the Environment Minister, Tony McRae, of lying to Julian Grill, Brian Burke’s partner, about a planning decision that he made regarding one of Mr Grill’s clients, because he... apparently the… they allege, that Mr Grill would then be more likely to help him organise a fundraising event. In other words, string him along, that’s what they’re suggesting, and then Mr Grill would work harder, and they were trying to get 80 people along to this fundraising event.
And what had happened, according to the commission’s evidence today, is that Mr McRae had actually reversed an earlier decision, and had approved the development, the planning decision, which Mr Grill and Mr Burke wanted. What next?
So. Today, what did we have? We had that, and we also had a shadow minister, Anthony Fels, falling on his sword. He was asked to go, by his leader, Paul Omodei, after he was involved with another former politician, Noel Crichton Browne, of the Liberals’ side of politics. Noel Crichton-Browne virtually wrote a motion that Mr Fels delivered in Parliament… Mr Crichton-Browne dictated that to the personal assistant of this shadow minister and he dutifully got up in Parliament and said those words, so he’s gone.
- 2 –
But there’s two ministers not named, they’re still there, and there’s one today, Tony McRae, he has been named. The luck… we’ve just heard that apparently the Premier is flying back from India, cutting short a visit there, because obviously he’s been told, the castle is falling.
Paul Omodei is on the line, the Opposition leader. (greetings not transcribed). How are you going up on the hill there?
PAUL OMODEI
Well, it’s been a bit of a roller coaster, hasn’t it? You know, everything’s happening in town. We’ve had huge big APEC conferences, and the whole of the Federal Cabinet here, and the Prime Minister, and Ministers falling over like… nine pins, yeah, it’s been… it’s certainly a roller coaster week.
HOWARD SATTLER
Alright, well Mr McRae is named today, and I don’t know whether you’ve seen the transcripts or what is… he’s been saying to Julian Grill and other people, should he immediately resign?
PAUL OMODEI
Well look, the allegations seem very serious and obviously the Premier needs to come back. My criticism really, if I can be critical of the Premier… look, he knew, he would have known who was going to be called before the CCC, and maybe it was unwise to go to India, or at least come back in a reasonable time, to try and pull things together.
What concerns me is that we now have… well, we’ve had three Ministers go in the last couple of years, and now we’ve got another three Ministers; the two faceless Ministers and now Tony McRae in trouble, but you’d have to ask yourself the question, how is the decision-making happening in the Cabinet in Western Australia, given that we’ve now got three Ministers that have taken part in Cabinet decisions that are under a cloud, and what does that do to the integrity of those decisions, and the whole integrity of the Cabinet decision-making process?
HOWARD SATTLER
Well I can’t work out, too, why is Mr McRae named and not those two other Ministers?
PAUL OMODEI
Well again, it seems very strange and I think that that’s an oversight by… obviously the CCC has its reasons, which I’m not conversant with, I’m not… I’m not a legal person…
HOWARD SATTLER
But there’s a cloud over the whole Cabinet now, isn’t there?
- 3 –
PAUL OMODEI
Well there is, there’s a cloud over every single one of them and there’ll be speculation, if you read the transcript, you can fairly easily work out who those Ministers are.
HOWARD SATTLER
Well you could have gone into the commission yesterday and then just walked out and you had their names.
PAUL OMODEI
That’s right, so you know, all of that means that there’s speculation out there but I think the thing that really concerns… will concern the public, and it concerns me as a leader in the political system, is that the scandal now is not only damaging the standing of Parliament in Western Australia, but it’s also… the people were overseas that are about to do business with Government in… in Western Australia, would have to be wondering what the hell’s going on here, because there’s no doubt in my mind that the system of government in Western Australia is in crisis.
HOWARD SATTLER
Well, Mr Grill, in these tapes, which I’ve got transcripts of, is saying that Mr McRae owes them, that’s his words. I mean, the thing is that Tony owes us, he says.
PAUL OMODEI
Well it’s just…
HOWARD SATTLER
What?
PAUL OMODEI
Look I haven’t read the transcripts today, I’ve been on the run but the language in the… the language in some of those tapes is just… awful, and it certainly doesn’t do those lobbyists any good at all, and certainly reflects badly on people that are Members of Parliament and…
HOWARD SATTLER
Well it shows how far they’ve got their tentacles into Government from… if you… I mean, if you believe these transcripts, and they are conversations.
PAUL OMODEI
- 4 –
Well look, Howard, as far as I’m concerned, I started in Parliament in 1986, because I had an argument with Brian Burke, and here I am, over 20… almost 20 years later, still… and he’s still around, he’s still creating mayhem. You know… you know, we’ve got to cut these people adrift and we’ve got to start with a fresh…
HOWARD SATTLER
Well that’s what Alan Carpenter said he did.
PAUL OMODEI
Well I think he’s got a bit to answer for, because we told him that when he bought Marlborough back into the Cabinet, that he was bringing Brian Burke into the Cabinet. Now that’s shown to have been true, so he’s got a bit to answer for. You know, the great bonn* homme* and the jubilation when Norm became the Minister, you know, obviously they didn’t realise the depth that they would sink to but, you know, now we’ve even got a backbencher releasing information as well.
HOWARD SATTLER
Yeah, I saw her today, she… is that the lady who said something about, she sent a letter to Brian Burke about something that was going on in Broome?
PAUL OMODEI
Well, not only that, she’s… she’s married to the person who runs the biggest union in the State.
HOWARD SATTLER
Oh. Oh dear… the twists and turns and the connections. Unbelievable.
PAUL OMODEI
Well, you know, we’ve got… at the moment, we’ve got one Minister who gave confidential information to Mr Burke…
HOWARD SATTLER
Is a… by the way, is this the CFMEU?
PAUL OMODEI
I… yeah, that would be the case. Well we’ve got a former minister, we’ve got Marlborough that was releasing confidential information, or it’s alleged that he has; then we’ve got the two faceless Ministers, the allegation is that they released confidential Cabinet information; now we’ve got the person we’ve just mentioned, and we’ve got… now, the latest one, Minister for the Environment, who’s in trouble as well. So we’ve got three Ministers in - 5 – trouble, and no wonder the Premier’s coming home, he probably should have come home a few days ago to try and arrest this situation but…
HOWARD SATTLER
But how disappointed were you that one of your own was caught up in it too, Anthony Fels?
PAUL OMODEI
Well I was very disappointed. I think Anthony Fels was trying to do the right thing, and he was trying to support a good cause…
HOWARD SATTLER
Yeah, but he’s pretty stupid or naive, isn’t he?
PAUL OMODEI
Certainly, I think he was naïve and that’s the reason why I’ve stood him down. I don’t think it’s appropriate for Members of Parliament to take information from paid lobbyists, and repeating that verbatim in Parliament. Now I explained that to Anthony and he’s been quite gracious, he’s understood where I’m coming from.
HOWARD SATTLER
He still thinks he was hardly done by.
PAUL OMODEI
Well… yeah, well look, as far as I’m concerned, he should have realised what the true situation was. The people he was getting the information from are now discredited and you know, he probably should have thought it through…
HOWARD SATTLER
What are you going to do if you find out any more of your lot have been doing business with Crichton-Browne, or political business?
PAUL OMODEI
Well look, I’m not stopping any of my members from talking to anybody. If they want to talk to the devil, then they’ll be judged by their peers…
HOWARD SATTLER
Just don’t do what the devil asks, is that what you’re saying? - 6 –
PAUL OMODEI
Well exactly. What I’m saying is that if they are paid lobbyists, then you need to be very careful as to how you handle information in relation to that. Now as it’s turned out, the information that Anthony Fels used, came from somebody that was employed by Brian Burke.
HOWARD SATTLER
Yeah and he virtually did his bidding because it was almost word for word.
PAUL OMODEI
At the same time, I can understand, the cause was a good cause and I think he was naive in the way that he approached…
HOWARD SATTLER
Can’t have naive people sitting on your frontbench though, Paul.
PAUL OMODEI
Well he’s actually not in the… in a Cabinet, in a shadow Cabinet…
HOWARD SATTLER
Well whatever, he was a shadow spokesman.
PAUL OMODEI
But he’s still a spokesman, he’s still a spokesman and it’s a very important portfolio and I’ve taken that action, but it hasn’t been easy for me to do that, but I’m just not going to tolerate people acting…
HOWARD SATTLER
Well that’s freed up a portfolio, maybe you can offer that to Matt Birney.
PAUL OMODEI
Yeah (inaudible). Play on.
HOWARD SATTLER
Paul Omodei, the Opposition leader. Yeah well, what should happen to Tony McRae, who clearly was dealing with Mr Grill, if you read these transcripts. I mean, they are transcripts of real conversations, and Julian Grill’s telling somebody else, the thing is that Tony owes - 7 – us. What is he owing, and why? So what do you think about this? It’s assuming the proportions of another WA Inc, and the best maybe, or the worst, put it whichever way you want, is yet to come. There’s something like 1,100 tapes, I’ve been told, 1,100, this could keep us going for years.
Ends.. pl