As a minister

Following Labor's victory in the February 2001 state election, Carpenter became the minister for education, minister for sport and recreation, and minister for Indigenous affairs.^[10][15][16] In January 2003, the departments of education and training, which was responsible for technical and further education, were merged, resulting in Carpenter becoming the minister for education and training.^[17] In June 2003, Carpenter relinquished the portfolios of sport and recreation and Indigenous affairs.^[10][18] Following the 2005 state election, Carpenter relinquished education and training, gaining the more economically-oriented portfolios of state development and energy in March 2005.^[10][15][19]

As the minister for education, Carpenter raised the school leaving age from 15 to 17.^[15] In May 2002, he announced that he supported raising the school leaving age.^[20] According to a state government report, over one fifth of 15 to 19 year olds were not in education, full-time employment or training.^[21] At a Labor Party conference in July 2003, delegates voted in favour of making raising the school leaving age an official party policy.^[22] As the minister for energy, Carpenter introduced legislation for the breakup of Western Power into four separate entities.^[23]

Ministry

Carpenter's ministry was unveiled on 1 February^[35] and sworn in on 3 February.^[37] Controversially, Carpenter had promoted Norm Marlborough, an ally of Brian Burke, to the ministry. Gallop had previously rejected Marlborough due to his links to Burke.^[35][38][39] Carpenter also lifted a ban on ministers dealing with Burke and his lobbying partner Julian Grill.^[40][41]

In April 2006, John D'Orazio, the minister for justice, minister for police and emergency services and minister for community safety, crashed his car while driving on a suspended licence. Carpenter reassigned D'Orazio to the portfolios of disability services, citizenship and multicultural interests, and seniors and volunteering on 8 May,^[42][43] but D'Orazio resigned from cabinet a day later after outcry from Labor backbenchers and ministers.^[44] D'Orazio was replaced in cabinet by Tony McRae.^[42][45] In August 2006, the Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC) heard evidence that D'Orazio had met with a corrupt panel beater to discuss the problem with D'Orazio's driver's licence.^[46][47][48] Carpenter requested and received D'Orazio's resignation from the Labor Party.^[46][49][50] D'Orazio was cleared of misconduct by the CCC in December 2007,^[51][52] and in April 2008, he was readmitted to the Labor Party, against the wishes of Carpenter,^[53] who said that he did not trust D'Orazio not to leak information from caucus.^[54]

In November 2006, Marlborough resigned from cabinet after it was revealed at a CCC hearing that he used a secret phone to communicate with Burke.^[55][56][57] Burke and his lobbying partner Julian Grill had been under investigation and had their phones tapped by the CCC for lobbying for the Smiths Beach development in Yallingup.^[58] In one instance, Burke tried to direct Marlborough to appoint a woman to a government commission.^[55][56][57] Two days later, Burke left the Labor Party, after Carpenter issued an ultimatum that he would quit if Burke did not leave the party.^[59] Carpenter reshuffled his cabinet in December 2006, but opted not to replace Marlborough's spot, leaving cabinet with 16 members. Ljiljanna Ravlich, who performed poorly as the minister for education, was demoted to less important portfolios, and John Bowler and Sheila McHale were demoted too.^[60][61]

In February 2007, McRae was removed from cabinet after he was questioned by the CCC. McRae had discussed political fundraising with Grill and was accused of reversing a planning decision for Burke and Grill when he was the assistant minister for planning.^[62][63] Carpenter said that "Mr McRae has committed a major error of judgement in discussing political fundraising assistance with a person commercially involved with a project that was before the minister for consideration.^[64] A day later, Bowler was removed from cabinet and resigned from the Labor Party after it was alleged at a CCC hearing that he was revealing government secrets to Burke and Grill.^[65][66] Another cabinet reshuffle occurred at the start of March 2007, where Sue Ellery was promoted to cabinet, leaving cabinet with 15 members.^[67]

Achievements

In August 2006, the state's unemployment rate dropped to 3.1 percent, the lowest of any state.^[42][68]

Carpenter implemented the domestic gas reservation policy, which required that 15 percent of gas from major LNG gas projects be reserved for the domestic market.^[69] The policy was criticised at the time by industry and the federal government, which claimed the policy would reduce investment in gas projects,^[70] but it has since been praised, particularly during a gas shortage in the eastern states of Australia in 2022.^[71][72]

2008 state election

The state opposition cycled through four separate leaders of the opposition during Carpenter's term as premier. When Carpenter became premier, Matt Birney was the opposition leader and leader of the Liberal Party, having been in the position since Colin Barnett relinquished the leadership after the 2005 state election. A year after the election, Birney was defeated in a leadership spill by Paul Omodei, who was himself defeated in a leadership spill by Troy Buswell at the start of 2008.^[73] On 6 August 2008, the Liberal Party replaced Buswell as leader with Colin Barnett. One day later, Carpenter called a snap election for 6 September, five months early.^[74][75][76]

Carpenter made a number of controversial "captain's calls" regarding preselection. Incumbent Swan Hills MLA Jaye Radisich wanted to contest the electoral district of West Swan, but was overruled in favour of Carpenter's chief of staff Rita Saffioti.^[77] D'Orazio wanted to contest the new electoral district of Morley for the Labor Party, but was overruled in favour of journalist Reece Whitby. D'Orazio quit the Labor Party again and contested the seat as an independent.^[78] Bob Kucera's seat of Yokine was abolished and he wanted to run for the seat of Mount Lawley. Carpenter believed him, at the age of 63, to be too old, and so Karen Brown was chosen to run instead. Additionally, John Bowler contested Kalgoorlie as an independent.^[79]

The Liberal Party achieved a swing towards it, winning 51.85 percent of the two-party-preferred vote.^[80] The Labor Party won 28 out of 59 seats, two short of a majority. The Liberal Party had 24 seats, the National Party had four seats, and there were three seats held by independents.^[81] Bowler retained Kalgoorlie as an independent and the Liberal Party won Morley due to D'Orazio's support for the Liberal candidate there, meaning that if neither of them had left the party, Labor would have won an outright majority. Nationals leader Brendon Grylls remained open to supporting either major party if they were to support his Royalties for Regions policy, but other Nationals MPs were in firm opposition to a Labor–Nationals government.^[80] On 14 September, the leader of the Nationals, Brendon Grylls, announced that his party would support the Liberals to form a minority government.^[82] Later that day, Carpenter conceded that Labor had lost the election, and said he would resign as Labor leader.^[80][83][84] Ripper was elected on 16 September to replace Carpenter as Labor Leader.^[85][86] Barnett was sworn in as the premier on 23 September.^[87][88]

In 2011, Parliament passed legislation fixing the date of state elections to the second Saturday in March every four years, to prevent the premier from calling an early election for political reasons. The legislation was passed with bipartisan support.^{[89][90][91][92]}

Bibliography

• Black, David (2021). The Western Australian Parliamentary Handbook (PDF) (25th ed.). Parliament of Western Australia. ISBN 978-1-925580-43-3. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 March 2023. Retrieved 4 October 2025.
• Bowe, William (Autumn 2009). "The Western Australian Election of September 6, 2008: The First Chink in Labor's Armour" (PDF). Australasian Parliamentary Review. 24 (1): 243–255.
• Kennedy, Peter (2014). Tales from Boom Town: Western Australian premiers from Brand to Barnett. UWA Publishing. pp. 248–273. ISBN 978-1-74258-533-8 – via Archive.org.