Premier of Western Australia Totally Explained

Everything about The Premier Of Western Australia totally explained

The Premier of Western Australia is the head of the executive government in the Australian State of Western Australia. He or she performs the same functions in Western Australia as the Prime Minister of Australia does at the national level. The current premier is Alan Carpenter, who was elected leader of the parliamentary caucus of the Australian Labor Party on the 24 January 2006 and was sworn in as premier on the 25 January 2006. (Eric Ripper currently serves as deputy premier and as treasurer of Western Australia.)

Function

The premier must be a member of one of the two Houses of the Parliament of Western Australia; by convention the premier is a member of the lower house, the Western Australian Legislative Assembly. He or she's appointed by the governor on the advice of the lower house, and must resign if he or she loses the support of the majority of that house. Consequently, the premier is almost always the leader of the political party or coalition of parties with the majority of seats in the lower house.
For more information on the office of premier, see Premiers of the Australian states.

History

The office of premier of Western Australia was first formed in 1890, after Western Australia was officially granted responsible government by Britain in 1889. The Constitution of Western Australia

doesn't explicitly provide for a premier, and the office wasn't formally listed as one of the executive offices until the appointment of Ross McLarty in 1947. Nonetheless, John Forrest immediately adopted the title on taking office as first premier of Western Australia in 1890, and it has been used ever since. John Forrest was the only premier of Western Australia as a self-governing colony. Following the Federation of Australia in 1901, Western Australia became an Australian state and the responsibilities of the office of premier were diminished.
   Party politics began in Western Australia with the rise of the Labor party in 1901. By 1904, the party system was entrenched in Western Australian politics. Since then the premiers have been associated with political parties.
   Western Australia's constitution contains nothing to preclude the premier being a member of the upper house, the Western Australian Legislative Council. Historically and by convention, however, the premier is a member of the Assembly. The only exception has been Hal Colebatch, a member of the Legislative Council who accepted the premiership in April 1919 on the understanding that an Assembly seat would be found for him, only to resign a month later when no seat could be found.
   During the economic boom of the 1980s, the Western Australian government became closely involved with a number of large businesses. A succession of deals were made between the government and businesses, and these ultimately caused great losses for the state. A subsequent royal commission found evidence of widespread corruption. Three former premiers were found to have acted improperly and two of them, Ray O'Connor and Brian Burke, were jailed. This scandal became popularly known as WA Inc.

List of Premiers of Western Australia

Premier	Party	Assumed Office	Left Office
Sir John Forrest	Forrest Party¹	29 December 1890	15 February 1901
George Throssell	Forrest Party¹	15 February 1901	27 May 1901
George Leake	Opposition¹	27 May 1901	21 November 1901
Alf Morgans	Ministerialist¹	21 November 1901	23 December 1901
George Leake	Opposition¹	23 December 1901	1 July 1902
Sir Walter James	Opposition¹	1 July 1902	10 August 1904
Henry Daglish	Labor	10 August 1904	25 August 1905
Sir Cornthwaite Rason	Ministerialist	25 August 1905	7 May 1906
Sir Newton Moore	Ministerialist	7 May 1906	16 September 1910
Frank Wilson	Commonwealth Liberal	16 September 1910	7 October 1911
John Scaddan	Labor	7 October 1911	27 July 1916
Frank Wilson	Commonwealth Liberal	27 July 1916	28 June 1917
Sir Henry Lefroy	Nationalist	28 June 1917	17 April 1919
Sir Hal Colebatch	Nationalist	17 April 1919	17 May 1919
Sir James Mitchell	Nationalist	17 May 1919	16 April 1924
Philip Collier	Labor	16 April 1924	24 April 1930
Sir James Mitchell	Nationalist	24 April 1930	24 April 1933
Philip Collier	Labor	24 April 1933	20 August 1936
John Willcock	Labor	20 August 1936	31 July 1945
Frank Wise	Labor	31 July 1945	1 April 1947
Sir Ross McLarty	Liberal	1 April 1947	23 February 1953
Albert Hawke	Labor	23 February 1953	2 April 1959
Sir David Brand	Liberal	2 April 1959	3 March 1971
John Tonkin	Labor	3 March 1971	8 April 1974
Sir Charles Court	Liberal	8 April 1974	25 January 1982
Ray O'Connor	Liberal	25 January 1982	19 February 1983
Brian Burke	Labor	19 February 1983	25 February 1988
Peter Dowding	Labor	25 February 1988	12 February 1990
Dr Carmen Lawrence	Labor	12 February 1990	16 February 1993
Richard Court	Liberal	16 February 1993	10 February 2001
Dr Geoffrey Gallop	Labor	16 February 2001	25 January 2006
Alan Carpenter	Labor	25 January 2006	incumbent

The premiers were not officially associated with organised parties until 1904. Bold text

Living former premiers

As of March 2008, six former premiers are alive, the oldest being Ray O'Connor (1982–83, born 1926). The most recent premier to die was Sir Charles Court (1974–82), December 22 2007.

Name	erm as premier	ate of birth
Ray O'Connor	1982–1983	6 March 1926
Brian Burke	1983–1988	February 25 1947
Peter Dowding	1988–1990	October 6 1943
Dr Carmen Lawrence	1990–1993	March 2 1948
Richard Court	1993–2001	September 27 1947
Dr Geoff Gallop	2001–2006	September 27 1951

Further Information

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