Oh dear, Crikey really seems to be offending the bruvvers this week. There’s been more correspondence on Stephen Smith and his role in the party in the west. Are we firing feuds or, given the influence a shonk and former premier by the name of Brian Burke still wields in the party there, are we running a public service? Here’s the latest shot:

“State Secretary Smith and the West Australian branch of the ALP. It was not Burke who financially broke the WA Party but Smith in an effort to re-elect Peter Dowding as Premier of what was a disgraced Labor government that deserved an electoral tanning. Smith, at Dowding’s bidding and with tacit approval of a weak and compliant Administrative Committee, spent the silver on an expensive advertising campaign because, apart from anything else, there was little or no grass roots support for the party. Smith hedged that a re-elected Labor government would receive the same financial support from the business community that Burke had initially engendered which of course did not happen as the ALP was so badly on the nose with both the general punter and the business community wouldn’t toss in a tanner… After ‘I can’t recall’ Carmen rolled Dowding while he was away and set new standards of political hypocrisy in WA, voters – including ALP supporters – rightly dumped the ALP at the following election. As Peter Walsh once said, governments usually last one term beyond their use-by date.”