Graham Richardson was a very successful operator of the Labor Party from the late 1970s who was distinctly short on redeeming virtues.

He may have had a role in its political success between the late 1970s and the mid-1990s, but his achievements came at a terrific and lasting cost to the reputation, integrity and probity of the party. It was exemplified by the title of his autobiography, Whatever it takes.

That lasting pall has been obvious in the amazing and appalling decision by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to give the corrupt old villain a state funeral. No one knew better than Albanese, at one stage one of his most bitter enemies, what a bad man, as well as what a ruthless bastard, Richardson was.

Instead we got the syrup of someone who is, these days, almost the number two member of the faction he once existed to fight. Richardson was “often colourful, and sometimes controversial, but what lay at the heart of it was his sense of service, underpinned by his powerful blend of passion and pragmatism,” Albanese said. “He gave so much to our party, to our nation and to the natural environment that future generations will cherish.”

Such tosh says more about Albo than it does about Richo. It is all one with a government which has abandoned recent noble hopes of being a reformer of government and an oasis of integrity and transparency. Labor is now back to its good old days of secrecy, rorts, jobs for the cronies and hands in the till. These are the virtues the old scoundrel stood for. They will lay the party low sooner than many might think.

It was less of a surprise to hear Richard Marles, current head of the faction Richardson once ruled, describe Richardson as a true patriot and hero. Marles comes from the same robber baron tradition if without the personality, brain or cunning or policy achievements.

Albo was the sole representative of the Left in the New South Wales ALP headquarters. Richo played hard and tried to exclude the left altogether. Some of the ill turns done to Albanese might nowadays be forgiven by admitting they were now ancient history. But at the time, the battles mattered, and were won by abuse of power.

Albanese knew chapter and verse of Richo’s shenanigans. Many were deeply on the nose if not quite illegal. Albanese knew well that Richardson left politics to profit from and prostitute his close knowledge of how the party worked for a cabal of Labor enemies, such as Kerry Packer and Rupert Murdoch. That he was involved in corruption and fraud, mostly for developers and sometimes on his own account, as with a mysterious, if under-investigated fire at a Sydney printing works that paid nearly 10 times its value in an insurance payout.

A man well known to figures in organised crime and frequently mentioned when it came to the brutal bashing of a party activist on the Left by organised crime figures. A man accused of having a Swiss bank account, finally forced to settle with the tax commissioner in a, sadly, undisclosed deal. A man frequently named in public inquiries as having been supplied with prostitutes by various criminal and developer enterprises.

A man who gloried in using the seven deadly sins to his........

© Pearls and Irritations