KEY POINTS:
Prime Minister John Howard was guest of honour at a A$2000-a-head fundraiser for a Queensland Liberal candidate, held at a winery at Mt Cotton, south of Brisbane.
Among the guests, despite the drum-tight security that surrounds such events, was Scott Mogul, a last-minute addition. Mogul is a notorious and violent pornographer, who at the time was awaiting trial on charges of torture, grievous bodily harm and other charges. Later, he was convicted and jailed.
The beneficiary of that fundraiser was Andrew Laming, now the Member for Bowman. Laming, with two other Liberal MPs - one a former minister - is at present under investigation for alleged electoral fraud.
On the other side of the House, Labor's legal affairs spokesman, Kevin Thomson, has been forced to resign and move to the backbenches because of a monumental lapse of judgment. Six years ago he wrote a reference for Tony Mokbel in support of an application for a liquor licence. Mokbel is one of Melbourne's most notorious gangsters and is at present on the run from a conviction for cocaine trafficking and charges of murder.
Nor are these the only sins on both sides that have been exposed in what is shaping up to become a brutal election campaign. Mud is flying thick and fast in Canberra as Howard and Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd prepare for a contest that on early polls could end the Government's 11-year run.
Not since the days of former Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating has such vitriol been flying. Keating could not resist the opportunity to resurface briefly, describing Howard on ABC radio as a "little desiccated coconut under pressure", and his deputy, Treasurer Peter Costello, as "all tip and no iceberg".
All good fun, you may think. Australian voters don't agree. Whereas MPs and journalists revel in the mud and the verbiage, the voters who will decide who runs the country after this year's elections have treated the trading of insults and allegations with contempt, and are willing to punish politicians who stick the boot in too hard.
The small elite that regards point-scoring in Parliament's question time as a marker of electoral superiority is missing the mark: to the rest of the country it confirms the low stature of politicians and diverts attention from the issues that concern suburbia.
This was hammered home after Rudd was revealed to have met corrupt former West Australian Premier Brian Burke on three occasions in 2005. Political observers predicted the end of the Rudd honeymoon that had seen him eclipse Howard in the polls. They were wrong. Rudd's personal popularity, and that of Labor, soared still higher.
For good reason, then, Rudd resisted the temptation to maul Howard over the Queensland fundraiser, telling reporters: "I am sure Mr Howard will have a reasonable answer when it comes to that report."
Not that Rudd has always been Mr Nice Guy. During the furore over the Australian Wheat Board's kickbacks to the executed former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in the oil-for-food scandal, Labor's then foreign affairs spokesman was merciless in his attacks on the competence and probity of Howard, Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer and then Trade Minister Mark Vaile.
More recently Rudd went for Howard's throat over suggestions of covert support for the reported plans of three Melbourne businessmen to set up nuclear power stations.
No wonder the Government took such great glee when it emerged that Rudd had met Burke, now at the centre of a scandal in WA that has so far cost the heads of four state ministers. The suggestion was that Rudd wanted to use Burke's influence to round up votes for a later challenge against the then Labor Leader Kim Beazley.
"Let me tell you, Mr Rudd has one person to blame - himself," Costello told ABC's Lateline programme. "He decided to go negative." On ABC's Insiders, Downer added: "This is somebody who's said terrible things about us over the last few years, has been happy to say so, has thought he was all terribly clever going out and abusing and denigrating the Government."
And so the mudfight started, splattering everyone. When Costello and Howard mauled Rudd, they took down one of their own: Human Services Minister Senator Ian Campbell, forced to resign after admitting to a 20-minute meeting with Burke two years ago. Normally not a sacking offence, but inevitable after Costello had declared against Rudd that "anyone who deals with Burke is morally and politically compromised".
For Labor the big casualty so far has been Kevin Thomson, who described "Fat Tony" Mokbel as a responsible and caring father, urging licensing authorities to take into account his "years of unblemished conduct". Apart from his conviction for cocaine trafficking, Mokbel has been charged with contracting the murder of rival crime boss Lewis Moran in a Melbourne club.
Thomson had to go.
Again, Howard is paying the price as Labor's attack dogs leap for other throats. Burke came back to bite the Government when The Australian listed major corporations who used the disgraced former premier as a lobbyist, including such major players as Macquarie Bank and Fortesque Metals, whose chief executive, Andrew Forrest, is a close friend of Howard. Forrest was also at the same dinner with Burke that Howard attacked Rudd for attending.
Howard, once nick-named "Honest John" and who vowed to clean up politics with a code of ministerial conduct, is also defending his Minister for Aging, Santo Santoro from Labor demands for his resignation. Santoro's consulting company had represented firms associated with aged care, and he held shares in a company benefiting from federal research grants, in breach of the code. He has since sold the shares.
In Queensland, Brisbane Liberal MPs Laming, Ross Vasta and Gary Hardgrave are under investigation for alleged electoral fraud after raids on their offices by the federal police. Hardgrave is a former Minister Assisting the Prime Minister, former Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs Minister, and - until January - Minister for Vocational and Technical Training.
Voters are simply switching off and turning to the things that really matter, such as jobs, health and education. Nothing has said this more clearly than three polls made after the Government targeted Rudd over Burke.
Newspoll, Morgan and ACNeilsen confirmed a strong trend to Rudd and Labor.
ACNeilsen reported that 83 per cent of voters said their view of Rudd had not been changed by the Burke affair, even though more than half believed he had been only "partly truthful" in his explanations of the meetings, and one in 10 thought he had lied.
Labor is heeding the message, still hurling the odd missile, but striving for the moral high ground by attacking the grubby tactics of its opponents.
The Government, on the other hand, sees merit in mud - not so much in destroying the moral stature of Rudd as in portraying him as an inexperienced leader of poor political judgement. It hopes the message will hit home at the ballot box, And everyone in Canberra is keeping their gumboots handy.
