Alan John Carpenter (born 4 January 1957) is a former Australian politician who served as the 28th

Premier of Western Australia The premier of Western Australia is the head of government of the state of Western Australia. The role of premier at a state level is similar to the role of the prime minister of Australia at a federal level. The premier leads the executive br ...

, from 2006 to 2008. From Albany, Carpenter graduated from the

University of Western Australia University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Crawley, Western Australia, Crawley, a suburb in the City of Perth local government area. UW ...

, and worked as a journalist before entering politics. A member of the Labor Party, he was first elected to the Legislative Assembly at the 1996 state election, representing the seat of Willagee. In the Gallop ministry, which took office following the 2001 election, Carpenter was Minister for Education (later Education and Training), as well as holding several other portfolios. He replaced

Geoff Gallop Geoffrey Ian Gallop (born 27 September 1951) is an Australian academic and former politician who served as the 27th premier of Western Australia from 2001 to 2006. He is currently a professor and director of the Graduate School of Government at ...

as premier in January 2006, following Gallop's resignation, but Labor lost office following a

hung parliament A hung parliament is a term used in legislatures primarily under the Westminster system (typically employing Majoritarian representation, majoritarian electoral systems) to describe a situation in which no single political party or pre-existing ...

at the 2008 election, with Colin Barnett becoming premier as the leader of a minority

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...

government. Carpenter resigned from parliament in 2009, and until 2018 held a senior management position with

Wesfarmers Wesfarmers Limited is an Australian conglomerate, headquartered in Perth, Western Australia. It has interests predominantly in Australia and New Zealand, operating in retail, chemical, fertiliser, industrial and safety products. With revenue o ...

Education

Carpenter was born in

Albany, Western Australia Albany ( ; ) is a port city in the Great Southern region in the Australian state of Western Australia, southeast of Perth, the state capital. The city centre is at the northern edge of Princess Royal Harbour, which is a part of King G ...

, was educated at Mount Lockyer Primary School then Albany Senior High School. After graduating in 1974, he travelled Australia, working a variety of different jobs before returning in 1977 to study

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

at the

and graduated in 1980.

Media career

Carpenter started 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 Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

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, becoming the Western Australian presenter of '' The 7.30 Report'' in 1992 (succeeding Liam Bartlett in the role), and moving on to become the first presenter of '' Stateline'' in 1996.

Politics

Carpenter resigned from the ABC in 1996 to begin a career in politics, and was preselected by the ALP to run for the new seat of Willagee, which he won. During his time in parliament he was shadow minister for disability services, sport & recreation, family & children's services, education, drugs, and as a member of the government, minister for education, sport & recreation, indigenous affairs, education and training, state development, and energy in the Gallop ministry. When

resigned due to illness in January 2006, Carpenter quickly emerged as the leading candidate to succeed him as premier, and gained crucial support from the Metal Workers Union. With the decisions of potential rivals Jim McGinty and Michelle Roberts to withdraw from the race, he was elected unopposed by the Labor caucus on 24 January. After November 2006, Carpenter removed three cabinet ministers in four months for impropriety involving former WA Premier Brian Burke, exposed by the Corruption and Crime Commission. Nevertheless, Carpenter's "no-nonsense" approach in dealing with this issue attracted a 60% public approval rating in opinion polls in late March 2007 (making him one of Australia's most popular state leaders, along with

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

n Premier

Mike Rann Michael David Rann (born 5 January 1953) is an Australian former politician who was the 44th premier of South Australia from 2002 to 2011. He was later Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom from 2013 to 2014, and List of Australi ...

). Late 2007 saw dissatisfaction with Carpenter rising and satisfaction falling. Two party preferred polling of 49 percent for Labor was a swing against them. In what proved to be a harbinger for Carpenter, Western Australia was the only state that recorded a swing to the

Coalition A coalition is formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political, military, or economic spaces. Formation According to ''A G ...

at the 2007 federal election. The federal election came at a bad time for the Carpenter government; despite Labor's resounding victory nationwide, it actually lost two of its seats in Western Australia to the Liberals. However, Liberal Party leader Paul Omodei was experiencing rising levels of dissatisfaction and a stagnant and low satisfaction rating. On the preferred premier measure, Carpenter out-polled Omodei 63–13. Carpenter called a state election the day after opposition leader Troy Buswell stood aside for former Opposition Leader Colin Barnett, following a number of scandals involving Buswell. In a break with longstanding tradition, the election was set for 6 September 2008, five months earlier than it was due. During the election campaign, Carpenter promised a ban on uranium mining in Western Australia if elected, reversing previous ALP policy, the ALP having rejected a Greens-initiated bill to ban uranium mining in April 2008. The election saw a substantial swing in most seats away from Labor, towards the Liberal and Greens parties, resulting in a

. While Labor remained the largest party, it was two seats short of a majority. Under pressure to resign as Parliamentary Labor leader, Carpenter began negotiations with the National Party with a view to forming a

minority government A minority government, minority cabinet, minority administration, or a minority parliament is a government and cabinet formed in a parliamentary system when a political party or coalition of parties does not have a majority of overall seats in ...

. However, the Nationals ultimately decided to support the Liberals in forming a minority government. As a result, Alan Carpenter was succeeded by Colin Barnett as Western Australian Premier, and stepped down as Labor leader in favour of his deputy, Eric Ripper. On 25 September 2009, Carpenter announced his retirement from politics, effective 2 October 2009. His political legacy came to the fore in 2022 with the low prices for gas which he negotiated for Western Australians being compared to soaring prices in the Eastern States.

Post-political career

Carpenter joined Australia's largest private sector employer

as executive general manager for corporate affairs in late 2009. He retired in 2018.

Personal life

Carpenter is married and has four daughters. Carpenter is an

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

."I'm republican and atheist, admits new Premier"
norepublic.com.au

References

External links

Wesfarmers's corporate profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carpenter, Alan University of Western Australia alumni 1957 births Australian television newsreaders and news presenters Members of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly Premiers of Western Australia Living people Journalists from Western Australia People from Albany, Western Australia Australian republicans Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Western Australia Wesfarmers people ABC News and Current Affairs Ministers for energy (Western Australia) 21st-century Australian politicians Australian atheists Australian political scientists Ministers for education (Western Australia)