Corruption Investigation into Labor Party

West Australian voters have finally lost patience, with devastating effect,
after watching ministers being sacked or tarnished in the continuing fallout
from corruption inquiries, and seeing the ALP tainted by its links to
disgraced former premier Brian Burke.
The latest Newspoll, conducted exclusively for The Australian, shows the
Liberal Opposition has assumed the lead for the first time in a year.
Support for Labor fell to just 38 per cent of the primary vote, down from
the 42 per cent recorded in every other Newspoll this year.
By comparison, the Liberals surged from 37 to 40 per cent of the primary
vote while the Nationals recorded 2 per cent - giving the conservative
parties a combined total of 42 per cent.
While a child protection scandal earlier this year failed to translate into
lost votes, Labor has now lost ground as a result of Corruption and Crime
Commission revelations about Mr Burke, the sacking of minister Norm
Marlborough, alleged blackmail and intimidation in the party and the
questionable conduct of senior bureaucrats, as well as uproar in education.
On a two-party-preferred basis, Labor now has just 49 per cent support,
compared with 52 per cent when it won last year's election and 53 per cent
in the months after Alan Carpenter became Premier in January this year.
The two-party-preferred jump from 48 to 51 per cent for the Liberal Party
and Nationals was their best result in a year.
But the news was not all bad for the Government, with Mr Carpenter retaining
strong personal support despite the failings of his ministers. He remained
light years ahead of Liberal leader Paul Omodei as the preferred premier,
boasting 54 per cent support compared with 17 per cent for MrOmodei.
The result will place more pressure on Mr Omodei - the third Liberal leader
in less than two years - for failing to capitalise on the Premier's horror
year with a solid gain in his own rating. Both leaders rose two points
during the crisis period.
While Mr Omodei has steadied the ship since winning the Liberal leadership
in March amid a period of ugly infighting, he has not yet made a big
impression on voters.
But Mr Carpenter has little room for complacency, despite the next state
election not being due until 2009.
While the Premier undertook a major cabinet reshuffle just two weeks ago in
a bid to freshen the Government's image, including demoting some ministers
known to have links with Mr Burke, he is now trapped in a waiting game to
see if there is trouble ahead when the Corruption and Crime Commission
begins new hearings in February.
There have been reports that at least two ministers could be in the
spotlight as the CCC sifts through the mountain of information it obtained
by bugging the phones of Mr Burke and his lobbying partner Julian Grill.
The CCC is also due to report in March on whether action should be taken
against any of the government bureaucrats who were exposed in bugged phone
conversations discussing development issues with Mr Burke.
The Newspoll provided good news to the Greens, who have now reversed a slide
in support seen earlier this year. The party recorded 7 per cent of the
primary vote, which was in line with last year's election result.