Carmen Mary Lawrence is an Australian academic and former politician who was the Premier of Western Australia from 1990 to 1993, the first woman to become the premier of an Australian state. A member of the Labor Party, she later entered federal politics as a member of the House of Representatives from 1994 to 2007, and served as a minister in the Keating government.
Peter McCallum Dowding SC is an Australian lawyer and former politician who was the 24th Premier of Western Australia from 25 February 1988 until his resignation on 12 February 1990. He was a member of parliament from 1980 to 1990.
Brian Thomas Burke is an Australian former politician who was the 23rd premier of Western Australia from 25 February 1983 to his resignation on 25 February 1988. He was a member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly from 30 March 1973 to 25 February 1988, representing the electoral districts of Balga and Balcatta at various points, and was the leader of the Australian Labor Party in Western Australia from 18 September 1981 to 25 February 1988. Burke studied law at the University of Western Australia for one year before dropping out. During the 1960s and early 1970s, he worked as a journalist for The West Australian newspaper, 6PM radio station, and Seven News Perth. He was elected to Parliament at the 1973 Balcatta state by-election, becoming one of the most popular local members over the following years. In 1981, he became the leader of the Labor Party in a leadership spill. He led the Labor Party to its first election victory since 1971 at the 1983 Western Australian state election, defeating the Liberal-National government of Ray O'Connor.
The Division of Fremantle is an electoral division of the Australian House of Representatives in Western Australia.
Raymond James O'Connor was an Australian politician who served as the premier of Western Australia from 25 January 1982 to 25 February 1983. He was a member of parliament from 1959 to 1984, and a minister in the governments of David Brand and Charles Court. O'Connor was born in Perth and attended schools in the Wheatbelt towns of Narrogin and York as well as St Patrick's Boys' School in Perth, leaving school at the age of 14. He played athletics and Australian rules football as a teenager and young adult, including playing 14 matches for East Perth in the Western Australian National Football League. During World War II, he served in the Australian Imperial Force in New Britain and Bougainville.
The following lists events that happened during 1991 in Australia.
WA Inc was a political scandal in Western Australia. In the 1980s, the state government, which was led for much of the period by premier Brian Burke, engaged in business dealings with several prominent businessmen, including Alan Bond, Laurie Connell, Dallas Dempster, John Roberts, and Warren Anderson. These dealings resulted in a loss of public money, estimated at a minimum of $600 million and the insolvency of several large corporations.
Lawrence Robert "Laurie" Connell was a Western Australian business entrepreneur. As chairman of the Rothwells merchant bank, he was well known for his dealings with the Government of Western Australia and his close relationships with a former premier of Western Australia, Brian Burke, and with entrepreneur Alan Bond, during the WA Inc period in the mid to late 1980s.
John Trezise Tonkin AC, popularly known as "Honest John", was an Australian politician.
Terence Joseph Burke is a former member for the seat of Perth in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly. He held the seat between 1968 and 1987. In 1974, with the Labor Party in Opposition, he was a member of the Tonkin shadow ministry. He is the elder brother of former premier Brian Burke and both are sons of former federal shadow cabinet member Tom Burke.
Jean Alice Jenkins is an Australian educator in languages and served as an Australian Democrats senator for Western Australia from 1987 to 1990. She is also noted as an originator in Western Australia of NAATI-accredited level 2 (paraprofessional) courses in translation and interpreting, and as a campaigner for human rights and preservation of built heritage. She has been a patron of the Art Deco Society of Western Australia since 1989.
Kevin John Parry was a businessman from Western Australia, most noted for his backing of the Taskforce '87 syndicate which unsuccessfully defended the 1987 America's Cup in Fremantle, Western Australia. The defence cost over $20 million and built and raced three 12-metre class boats: Kookaburra I, Kookaburra II, and Kookaburra III.
David Charles Parker is an Australian former politician from Western Australia, serving as a minister in the Burke Ministry (1983–1988), then as Deputy Premier in the Dowding Ministry (1988–1990). He later served a jail term for perjury for evidence given to the WA Inc royal commission.
Malcolm John Bryce was an Australian politician, who served as a Labor Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Western Australia from 1971 to 1988, representing the seat of Ascot. He was deputy leader of the Labor Party from 1977 to 1980 and from 1981 to 1988, and served as deputy premier under Brian Burke.
Dallas Reginald Dempster was an Australian businessman notable for the original development of Perth's Burswood Resort and Casino and the proposed Kwinana Petrochemical Plant, both of which were among the Western Australian government transactions examined by the 1990–92 WA Inc Royal Commission. In November 2013 The West Australian newspaper named Dempster as one of Western Australia's 100 most influential business leaders (1829–2013).
The Kwinana petrochemical plant was a never-realised petrochemical plant proposed in the late 1980s to be developed in Kwinana, Western Australia.
The Western Australian Development Corporation (WADC) was a trading corporation established in 1983 by the first Burke Ministry of Western Australia. It enabled the state Labor government to involve itself in large-scale business transactions without the normal transparency and accountability of government-guaranteed corporations, and was part of what became known as WA Inc. It appointed John Horgan chairman on a salary of $800,000 p.a., and formed subsidiaries including Exim Corporation which sought to create and exploit export markets for education and other products. The enabling Act provided that "(4.3) The Corporation is an agent of the Crown in right of the State and enjoys the status, immunities and privileges of the Crown..." while "(4.4) Notwithstanding subsection (3), the Corporation shall not be subject to direction by the Minister..."
[T]o make sure he kept secret the dealings of the WADC and its shady subsidiaries such as Exim Corporation, [Burke] pushed through legislation that not only gave them commercial confidentiality but unshackled them from ministerial accountability. The WADC was just one of many Burke creations synonymous with the corporatism of the WA Inc era -- a failed political strategy that folded high-risk business into unethical government and led to financial and social upheaval still resonating a quarter of a century later.
Bevan Ernest Lawrence, a retired Western Australian barrister and Liberal political campaigner, is the older brother of Carmen Lawrence, a former Labor premier of Western Australia. In the 1980s he was a convenor of two notable lobby groups that influenced the course of government at federal and state levels.
A leadership spill of the Western Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party occurred on 12 February 1990. It resulted in the replacement of premier and party leader Peter Dowding with Carmen Lawrence, making her the first female state premier in Australia. It also resulted in the replacement of deputy premier and deputy party leader David Parker with Ian Taylor. The leadership spill occurred as a result of the government's increasing unpopularity as a result of the WA Inc scandal.
