Graham Richardson

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This article is about the Australian politician. For others named Graham or Graeme Richardson, see Graeme Richardson (disambiguation).

Graham Richardson (born September 27, 1949, in Sydney, Australia) is a former Labor politician who was a 'numbers man' for the right wing of the New South Wales branch of the Australian Labor Party. He was highly effective in this position and became known as a 'king maker'. Former Prime Minister Bob Hawke said he was helped twice by Richardson, first to become Prime Minister and then to become not Prime Minister.

Richardson was elected to the Australian Senate in the elections of March 1983, as a Senator for New South Wales and became Minister for the Environment in March 1987 as part of the Third Hawke ministry. He was Minister for Health in Paul Keating's Government until he resigned on 18 May 1992 over the Marshall Islands affair. He resigned from parliament on 25 March 1994.

Remembered more as a behind-the-scenes 'powerbroker', Richardson is now primarily seen by the Australian public through election night television coverage. He is currently a political commentator for the Nine Network and broadcaster with 2GB.

Richardson was implicated in a 'cash for comment' scandal in Australian radio broadcasting, where some radio personalities were found to be promoting certain companies while on the companies' payroll, but having kept the deal secret from listeners to make it look like the comments were genuine opinion/editorial. Richardson was being paid by Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL), and spruiked for PBL-owned companies Channel 9 and Crown Casino during his radio show.

Recently Richardson has become embroiled in allegations of tax evasion involving the late Rene Rivkin.^[1]. Federal Court Judge James Allsop released a document on 27 September 2006 showing that Richardson had an undeclared Swiss bank account containing $1.4 million.^[2].

[edit] References

^ "Judge exposes Richo's secret tax case", The Sydney Morning Herald, 2006-09-23. Retrieved on 2006-09-23.
^ "Richo's $1.4m Swiss bank deposit", The Sydney Morning Herald, 2006-09-27. Retrieved on 2006-09-27.

[edit] Further reading

Searching For Sources - Concerning allegations of corruption concerning the former Labor Cabinet minister Graham Richardson.
Graham Richardson, Whatever It Takes (Bantam, 1994) - An autobiography that plays down or omits many of the discreditable details
Marian Wilkinson, The Fixer: the untold story of Graham Richardson (1996) - A biography that includes some of the omitted details
James McClelland, An Angel Bit The Bride (Penguin, 1989) - A collection of McClelland's newspaper columns; see pages 59-62 "On The Road To The Damascus Rainforest" for a hostile account of Richardson.