a copy of Huey Long, a 1969 biography written by T. Harry Williams. Bryce said that "it was simply common practice for Burke to bring the biography into Parliament. It was the most read book I had ever seen him read over a long time working closely with him." Quentin Beresford posited in his biography, The godfather: the life of Brian Burke, that Burke saw similarities between himself and Long. They both came from large families, were skilled at manipulating people, did not have any fundamental political philosophy, and were entrepreneurial. On 25 January 1982, Court retired from Parliament, and the Liberal Party elected Ray O'Connor as its leader. Leading into the 1983 state election, Western Australia was in a recession and interest rates were rising, affecting middle-class voters who would normally vote Liberal. Burke was a strong performer in the media, and O'Connor lacked leadership on many issues. The government was seen to have lost its way, with little to no policy on social issues such as abortion, divorce, and prostitution. In December 1992, O'Connor called the election for 19 February 1983. To O'Connor's dismay, Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser set the federal election two weeks after the state election. This was seen as an advantage to the state Labor Party, as the party's federal leader Bob Hawke, who was raised in Western Australia, was seen as more sympathetic to the state than the Liberal Prime Minister Fraser. By mid-January, unemployment was up to 9.5%. Combatting unemployment became the main plank of Labor's campaign, with Burke saying that his aim was to "create an economic environment in which all those who sought full-time paid employment could find it". He promised during the campaign to set up a state unemployment taskforce at a cost of $34.5 million which reported to Cabinet. He also promised to reform the Legislative Council, which Labor had long criticised as undemocratic. This would include reducing the number of members from 34 to 22, which would require a referendum. Other commitments were to set up an inquiry into education conducted by former Federal Minister for Education Kim Beazley Sr., build an extra 1,500 state housing units using the funds from the sale of housing commission land, establish a Western Australian Development Bank to increase the amount of risk capital, reduce payroll tax and eventually abolish it, and set up a South East Asian Marketing Corporation to increase