Colin Barnett

The Honourable Colin Barnett MLA
29th Premier of Western Australia
Incumbent
Assumed office 23 September 2008
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Governor	Ken Michael Malcolm McCusker
Preceded by	Alan Carpenter
Treasurer of Western Australia
In office 27 April 2010 – 14 December 2010
Preceded by	Troy Buswell
Succeeded by	Christian Porter
In office 12 June 2012 – 7 July 2012
Preceded by	Christian Porter
Succeeded by	Troy Buswell
Leader of the Opposition of Western Australia
In office 26 February 2001 – 9 March 2005
Preceded by	Richard Court
Succeeded by	Matt Birney
In office 6 August 2008 – 23 September 2008
Preceded by	Troy Buswell
Succeeded by	Eric Ripper
Member of the Western Australian Parliament for Cottesloe
Incumbent
Assumed office 11 August 1990
Preceded by	Bill Hassell
Personal details
Born	Colin James Barnett (1950-07-15) 15 July 1950 Nedlands, Western Australia
Political party	Liberal Party
Alma mater	University of Western Australia
Profession	Economist

Colin James Barnett (born 15 July 1950) is an Australian politician who is the 29th and current Premier of Western Australia in his role as leader of the Western Australian Division of the Liberal Party of Australia. He had previously served as the state's Leader of the Opposition and Treasurer, as well as holding various other portfolios in Western Australia's Cabinet.

Barnett was born in Nedlands, a suburb of Perth, the capital of Western Australia, and graduated from the University of Western Australia with an economics degree. Having lectured in economics at the Western Australian Institute of Technology and served as an executive director of the Western Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, he was elected to the Western Australian Legislative Assembly for the seat of Cottesloe at a by-election in 1990. Barnett served as a minister in the Court–Cowan Ministry from 1993 until its defeat at the 2001 election, after which he was made leader of the Liberal Party, replacing the outgoing premier, Richard Court. He resigned as leader after the unsuccessful 2005 election, but regained the position prior to the 2008 election, where he was elected premier. Barnett was sworn into office on 23 September 2008 by Ken Michael, the Governor of Western Australia at the time.

Early life

Barnett was born in Nedlands, an inner western suburb of Perth, on 15 July 1950. He was educated at Nedlands Primary School and Hollywood Senior High School. He began studying geology at the University of Western Australia, but switched to an economics course from which he graduated with an honours degree and later a masters degree. In 1973, he became a cadet research officer for the Australian Bureau of Statistics in Canberra, being promoted to senior research officer before returning to Perth in 1975 to become a lecturer in Economics at the Western Australian Institute of Technology (later renamed Curtin University of Technology).

In 1981, he was seconded to the Confederation of Western Australian Industry, becoming the founding editor of their publication, Western Australian Economic Review. He was later appointed their chief economist, and served with them until 1985, when he became the executive director of the Western Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Politics

Court government and Opposition Leader

In 1990, he was elected to the Western Australian Legislative Assembly for the seat of Cottesloe, and was immediately promoted to the Opposition front bench. In 1992 he was elected Deputy Leader of the Opposition. After the 1993 state election which saw the Liberals take power under Richard Court, Barnett became Minister for Resources Development and Energy and later, Minister for Education and Minister for Tourism in the Court–Cowan Ministry. He was also the Leader of the House in the Legislative Assembly and remained deputy leader of the Liberal Party. He was generally regarded as a competent and successful minister, and was associated with a number of important resource development projects.

The Court government was defeated at the 2001 election. Court had a somewhat frosty relationship with Barnett, and wanted to keep him from becoming leader of the opposition. He attempted to install federal MP Julie Bishop as new leader of the opposition. Under Court's plan, Barnett would have been offered Bishop's seat of Curtin, the safest Liberal seat in the Perth area. Bishop would have then run in either Barnett's seat of Cottesloe or Court's seat of Nedlands, both reckoned as comfortably safe Liberal seats, and Court would have handed the leadership of the state Liberal Party to Bishop. When Barnett found out about the plan, he claimed to have "choked on his Weet-Bix" at what he described as "and act of treachery." However, when Bishop rejected the plan, Court, finding himself in an untenable situation, resigned. This left Barnett to take the leadership unopposed.

At the 2005 state election, Barnett proposed the construction of a canal from the rivers of the Kimberley Ranges in northern Western Australia to Perth to meet Perth's growing water supply problem. The proposal was costed by Barnett at A$2 billion, however it soon emerged that no feasibility study or detailed costings had been done. Some experts put the cost as high as A$5 billion. The Prime Minister, John Howard, refused to commit federal funds to the project. He released the policy costings only a few days before the election, when a A$200 million error in the costings document was discovered. When the Gallop government was returned with its majority intact, Barnett accepted responsibility for the defeat and resigned the Liberal leadership. On 9 March 2005 Liberal MPs elected Matt Birney, the member for Kalgoorlie, as Barnett's successor.

Following his resignation as leader Barnett remained on the backbench and in November 2007 announced that he would retire from politics at the next state election, at that stage due by May 2009.

Premier

On 4 August 2008, Troy Buswell resigned as Opposition Leader and two days later Barnett was re-elected unopposed to the Liberal leadership despite the fact that he had previously announced his retirement and Deidre Willmott (who would subsequently be appointed as his Chief of Staff) had been endorsed in his electorate. On 7 August 2008, Premier Alan Carpenter called an early election for 6 September 2008. Barnett led the Liberal Party to the election, which saw a significant swing away from the incumbent Labor Party, leading to a hung parliament. On 14 September 2008, the National Party agreed to support the Liberal Party as a minority government, and Barnett was sworn into office on 23 September 2008.

Barnett was the sole state premier opposed to Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's key Health reform policy deal at the April 2010 COAG meeting. Barnett at the time led the only Liberal State Government in Australia, while all others states were led by Labor Governments. The reasoning for Barnett's strong opposition towards the reform was because it would require the State Governments to forfeit a proportion of their GST revenue. The Rudd Government's proposal was that 30 per cent of the GST revenue pool was to be dedicated towards the Commonwealth's contribution for hospital services, which had a disproportionate impact on those States receiving a less than per capita share of the GST pool (for Western Australia, this would have resulted in an estimated 64 per cent of GST revenue being forfeit). Barnett had already been angered that Western Australia was given a decreased 7.1 percent amount of the GST revenue (lower than last year's revenue amount of 8.1 percent) while Western Australia is a state that will be heavily relied upon for the nation's economic growth due to its booming resource sector. Western Australia therefore would be heavily dependent on GST revenue to fund major resource sector projects although they would not be supported by GST revenue, thus becoming extensive expenditure for the state.

Barnett believed that if Western Australia had agreed to a proposition for the States to handover 30% of the GST revenue pool, the arrangement could eventually lead to the federal government being able to acquire 100% of the state's GST revenue. The reaction of Colin Barnett towards the health reform has been considered by political writer Peter van Onselen as a preservation of the states' rights.

From 27 April 2010, Barnett held the Treasury Portfolio after the resignation of former Treasurer Troy Buswell. In a cabinet reshuffle he handed the portfolio to Christian Porter later that same year. Barnett returned to the treasury portfolio when Christian Porter suddenly decided to pursue a career in federal politics and resigned immediately from all his state ministerial portfolios on 12 June 2012. Porter's resignation saw Barnett serve as an interim Treasurer until he was officially replaced by Troy Buswell the following month on 7 July.

Barnett led the Liberals to victory in the 2013 state election, taking 31 seats on a swing of 8.8 percent. Although this was enough for the Liberals to govern alone, Barnett said after the election that the coalition with the WA Nationals would be retained.

Controversial policies

In October 2004, Barnett led a campaign to raise the age of consent for homosexual acts from 16 to 18. This policy of recriminalisation was opposed by several major organisations, including Amnesty International, the World Health Organisation, and the Australian Medical Association, as well as all other parliamentary parties, including the Nationals.

In October 2009, Barnett announced a series of new policies relating to drug legislation including a repeal of the Cannabis Control Act 2003. The previous laws were formulated by Geoff Gallop's drug summit, taking input from experts such as academics, police, social workers, lawyers, medical professionals and members of the public. Barnett has stated it is his intention to overturn these laws because of his beliefs and stated that the drug summit members made a mistake introducing them and that cannabis was a "gateway drug". To help with the enforcement of this new policy, Barnett also supported legislation to give police the power to search and seize property without any suspicion or belief that a crime has been committed. A Liberal parliamentarian, Peter Abetz, voiced support for these laws in parliament by drawing reference to the work Adolf Hitler did to bring security to Nazi Germany. Barnett said that Abetz was making a valid point.

See also

• Barnett Ministry

External links

• Department of the Premier and Cabinet
• Electorate Website for Cottesloe

Parliament of Western Australia
Preceded by Bill Hassell	Member of Parliament for Cottesloe 1990–present	Incumbent
Party political offices
Preceded by Richard Court Troy Buswell	Leader of the Liberal Party of Australia (WA Division) 2001–2005 2008–present	Succeeded by Matt Birney Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by Richard Court Troy Buswell	Leader of the Opposition of Western Australia 2001–2005 2008	Succeeded by Matt Birney Eric Ripper
Preceded by Alan Carpenter	Premier of Western Australia 2008–present	Incumbent