Carpenter was born on 4 January 1957 in Albany,Western Australia,the eldest of three children of Graham and Elaine Carpenter. Growing up in Lockyer a suburb of Albany,Carpenter was educated at Albany Senior High School. After graduating from high school,he travelled across Australia,before studying politics[1] at the University of Western Australia in Perth,where he was active in the university's football club. After graduating from university in 1979,Carpenter became a journalist,first at the Albany Advertiser. From 1982 to 1986,he travelled throughout Asia and Europe,including managing a backpackers' hostel in London and teaching English at a school in Civitanova Marche in Italy.[2]
Upon moving back to Perth in 1986,Carpenter got a job as a reporter for television station TVW,[2] where he met his future wife. In 1990,Carpenter joined ABC News,and from 1991,he worked on the Western Australian edition of the The 7.30 Report,the ABC's current affairs program. When Liam Bartlett quit as The 7.30 Report's host in 1992,Carpenter became the show's new host. Among the interviews Carpenter did was an interview with former Labor premier Brian Burke.[3] It was in Carpenter's role as host of The 7.30 Report that he came in contact,and later became friends,with Mark Nolan,the Labor Party's state secretary. Nolan encouraged Carpenter to start a political career.[4] Upon nominations opening for the Labor Party's candidates for the 1996 state election,Carpenter nominated for the new electoral district of Willagee.[5]
Political career
As a former television host,Carpenter was one of the most high profile non-incumbent candidates in 1996. Willagee was notionally held by Labor on a 2.2 percent margin. The Labor Party,including Carpenter personally,invested significant campaign resources for the seat of Willagee.[6] Despite several polls indicating that Labor would lose Willagee,[7] Carpenter won the seat with a 50.1 percent primary vote,beating three other candidates.[5] In his maiden speech,Carpenter voiced support for changing the Australian flag,electoral reform,fixed and simultaneous terms for both houses of Parliament,and constitutional recognition of Aboriginal people.[8] He was critical of the generous pension former politicians received[8][9] and the gulf between the highest paid and lowest paid workers,criticising Wesfarmers in particular.[8]
From the beginning of his political career,Carpenter was viewed as a future frontbencher and even party leader.[7] In January 1997,Carpenter was appointed to the shadow ministry by Labor leader Geoff Gallop,with the portfolios of disability services and sport and recreation.[10] In August 1999,Carpenter was promoted to the higher profile portfolios of education,family and children's services,and drug strategy.[10][11]
In response to Carpenter's maiden speech,the reigning Coalition government,led by Richard Court,introduced legislation to reduce the pension received by former politicians. The new pension scheme was made optional for MPs elected in 1996;MPs elected before that were only allowed on the old scheme. Carpenter was the only MP to voluntarily move to the new pension scheme,forgoing hundreds of thousands of dollars.[12][13][14]
On 16 January 2006,Gallop unexpectedly announced his resignation as Premier and Labor leader due to depression,effective immediately.[19] At the time,Carpenter was on holiday in Europe;he cut his holiday short to run for leader of the Labor Party.[20] Carpenter and Attorney-General Jim McGinty soon emerged as the leading contenders to replace Gallop,while Treasurer Eric Ripper and Police Minister Michelle Roberts were also contenders.[21] Days later,Carpenter and Roberts nominated for the Labor Party leadership.[22][23] McGinty instead endorsed Carpenter,[24] leading to Roberts' withdrawal,due to Carpenter receiving enough support to win the leadership ballot.[25] Carpenter was elected leader of the Labor Party unopposed in a caucus meeting on 24 January.[26][27] He was sworn in as premier by Governor Ken Michael on 25 January.[28]
Carpenter's ministry was sworn in on 3 February.[29] 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.[30][31]
In November 2006,Marlborough was removed from the ministry after it was revealed at a Corruption and Crime Commission hearing that he had a secret phone used to contact Burke. In one instance,Burke directed Marlborough to appoint a woman to a government commission.[32][33] Two days later,Burke left the Labor Party,after Carpenter issued an ultimatum that he would quit if Burke did not leave the party.[34] Furthermore,Tony McRae and John Bowler were removed from the ministry in February 2007 for their dealings with Burke and his business partner,Julian Grill.[35][36]
2008 state election
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.[37][38]
On 14 September,the leader of the Nationals,Brendon Grylls,announced that his party would support the Liberals to form a minority government. Later that day,Carpenter conceded that Labor had lost the election,and said he would resign as Labor leader.[39][40] Ripper was elected on 16 September to replace Carpenter as Labor Leader.[41][42] Barnett was sworn in as the premier on 23 September.[43][44]
Post-political career
In September 2009,Carpenter announced that he would resign as the member for Willagee,effective 2 October 2009.[45]Peter Tinley retained Willagee for the Labor Party in the following by-election.[46][47] In December 2009,Carpenter joined Wesfarmers as its executive general manager for corporate affairs,reporting to chief executive Richard Goyder,a strong advocate for deregulating retail trading hours who had criticised Carpenter's position on retail trading hours when he was premier.[48][49][50] Carpenter said he would support Wesfarmers' position on retail trading hours while employed by the company.[51] Carpenter left his position in August 2018,and spent the rest of the year at Wesfarmers in an advisory position,before leaving the company.[52][53]
From September 2020 to early 2022,Carpenter was a board member for the state government agency DevelopmentWA as a director.[54][55][56][57]
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