Australian politician, formerly a journalist before entering state politics as a Labour MLA in 1973. On 19 February 1983, Burke was elected Premier of Western Australia and his government soon formed strong ties with high-profile businessmen Alan Bond and Laurie Connell. When the stock market crashed in October 1987, a decade of extravagant expansion burst along with Bond’s business. Connell organized a rescue package which included a $150 million state guarantee – but only after all resources had been expended. Premier Burke justified risking taxpayers’ funds by arguing that many small depositors in Connell’s merchant bank would have been hurt.
On 25 February 1988, Burke resigned as Premier to become ambassador to Ireland and the Vatican, but in 1991 he was forced to return to Australia to appear before the Royal Commission. Two years later, he was charged with stealing from his parliamentary travel account and the ALP. In July 1994, Burke was found guilty of using a parliamentary account for personal purposes and sentences to two years in prison. He served seven months in jail in 1994 for travel expense rorts before being released on parole. In March 1997, he was sentenced to three years’ jail for stealing $122,585 in campaign donations. He served six months before the convictions were quashed on appeal. In 1995, he was stripped of his 1988 honour as a Companion of the Order of Australia.
Burke became active as a consultant and lobbyist for Western Australian business interests. Burke stood trial on five charges of telling lies to the Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC) inquiry and on 1 April 2010 was found guilty of deliberately giving false testimony and fined $25,000. An attempted appeal to the High Court against the conviction failed. Soon after, Burke was found not guilty of a separate charge of disclosing official secrets.
On 19 June 2013, Burke was charged with four counts of insider trading relating to the ASX-listed telecommunications company AMCOM, all of which were dropped on 18 February 2014.

Link to Wikipedia biography