Alan Carpenter (born 4 January 1957), Australian politician, is the 28th Premier of Western Australia. He took office on 25 January 2006 following the resignation of Dr Geoff Gallop. A member of the Australian Labor Party, he represents the Electoral district of Willagee in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly. Prior to becoming Premier of the Government of Western Australia he was Minister for State Development and Minister for Energy (2005-2006), Minister for Education and Training (2003-2005) and Minister for Education and Indigenous Affairs (2001-2003).
Education
Carpenter was born in Albany, Western Australia, then moving to Perth, and was educated at Claremont Primary School. After graduating in 1974, he travelled Australia, working a variety of different jobs before returning in 1977 to study political science at the University of Western Australia and graduated in 1979.
Media career
Carpenter began working for the Albany Advertiser as a journalist. In 1982 he travelled overseas, spending 11 months in Asia and then moving to Europe, where he worked in various jobs for three years. He returned to Australia in 1986, and began working for the Perth television station TVW-7 as a reporter on politics within the state. In 1990 Carpenter moved to the ABC, continuing his role as state political reporter in his new job. He moved up through the ranks in the ABC, acting as the Western Australian presenter of The 7.30 Report in 1992, and moving on to become the first presenter of Stateline in 1996.
Politics
He resigned from the ABC in 1996 to begin a career in politics, and was preselected by the ALP to run for the new District of Willagee, which he won. During his time in parliament he has held many portfolios, including (as Shadow Minister) Disability Services, Sport & Recreation, Family & Children's Services, Education, Drugs, and (as Government Minister) Education, Sport & Recreation, Indigenous Affairs, Education and Training, State Development, and Energy.
Carpenter was a cabinet minister in the Gallop government, and when Gallop resigned as a result of depression in January 2006, he instantly emerged as a leading candidate to succeed him. With the decisions of potential rivals Jim McGinty and Michelle Roberts to withdraw from the race, he was elected unopposed as Premier by the Labor caucus on January 24.
Since November 2006, he removed three cabinet ministers in four months for impropriety exposed by the Corruption and Crime Commission involving former WA Premier Brian Burke. Nevertheless, Carpenter's "no-nonsense" approach in dealing with this issue found support with the Western Australian public, based on his 60% approval rating in late March 2007 (making him one of Australia's most popular state leaders, along with South Australian Premier Mike Rann). [1] Late 2007 saw dissatisfaction rise with satisfaction falling, however the Preferred Premier figure stayed reletively the same on 63-13, compared to Omodei's dissatisfaction rising but a stagnant low satisfaction rate. Two party preferred polling of 49 percent for Labor saw a swing against them.[2]
Personal
Carpenter is married to Annmarie de Costa, and has four daughters, Grace, Claudia, Isabelle and Ava.
References
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