Colin Barnett
Encyclopedia
Colin James Barnett Australian politician, is the leader of the Western Australian Liberal Party
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...

, the 29th and current Premier of Western Australia
Premier of Western Australia
The Premier of Western Australia is the head of the executive government in the Australian State of Western Australia. The Premier has similar functions in Western Australia to those performed by the Prime Minister of Australia at the national level, subject to the different Constitutions...

 since the 2008 election
Western Australian state election, 2008
A general election was held in the state of Western Australia on Saturday 6 September 2008 to elect 59 members to the Legislative Assembly and 36 members to the Legislative Council...

 and served as the Treasurer of Western Australia
Treasurer of Western Australia
The Treasurer of the State of Western Australia is the title held by the Cabinet Minister who is responsible for the management of Western Australia's public sector finances, and for preparing and delivering the annual State Budget...

 in 2010. He was sworn into office by Governor
Governor of Western Australia
The Governor of Western Australia is the representative in Western Australia of Australia's Monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. The Governor performs important constitutional, ceremonial and community functions, including:* presiding over the Executive Council;...

 Ken Michael
Ken Michael
Kenneth Comninos Michael, AC was the 32nd Governor of Western Australia, succeeding Lieutenant-General John Sanderson.His vice-regal appointment was announced on 6 June 2005 by the then Premier Geoff Gallop and he was sworn in at Government House, Perth on 18 January 2006 by the Chief Justice of...

 on 23 September 2008. Prior to becoming Premier, head of the Western Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and a lecturer in economics at Curtin University, a Minister in the Court
Richard Court
Richard Fairfax Court AC , was a Western Australian politician, representing the seat of Nedlands in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly for the Liberal Party of Australia from 1982 to 2001. He served as Premier of Western Australia from 1993 to 2001.Court was born into an old political...

 government (1993–2001) and Opposition Leader
Leader of the Opposition (Western Australia)
The Leader of the Opposition in Western Australia is the leader of the largest minority political party or coalition of parties in the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of Western Australia. By convention, he or she is generally a member of the Legislative Assembly...

 (2001–2005). From 27 April 2010 Colin Barnett held the Treasury Portfolio
Treasurer of Western Australia
The Treasurer of the State of Western Australia is the title held by the Cabinet Minister who is responsible for the management of Western Australia's public sector finances, and for preparing and delivering the annual State Budget...

 after the resignation of former Treasurer Troy Buswell
Troy Buswell
Troy Raymond Buswell is currently the Liberal member for the Western Australian Legislative Assembly seat of Vasse, and the Minister for Transport and Minister for Housing. He was Leader of the Opposition for several months in 2008, then served as Treasurer of Western Australia in the Barnett...

. In a cabinet reshuffle he handed the portfolio to Christian Porter
Christian Porter
Charles Christian Porter is a Liberal member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly representing the electorate of Bateman and is Treasurer and Attorney-General in the Liberal-National government. He entered Parliament after winning the seat of Murdoch in a by-election in 2008 following...

 later that same year.

Early life

Barnett was born in Nedlands
Nedlands, Western Australia
The City of Nedlands is a Local Government Area in the inner western suburbs of the Western Australian capital city of Perth, located about west of Perth's central business district...

, an inner western suburb of Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....

, on 15 July 1950. He was educated at Nedlands Primary School and Hollywood Senior High School—the same school attended by former federal Labor
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

 Leader Kim Beazley
Kim Beazley
In the October 1998 election, Labor polled a majority of the two-party vote and received the largest swing to a first-term opposition since 1934. However, due to the uneven nature of the swing, Labor came up eight seats short of making Beazley Prime Minister....

. He began studying geology
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...

 at the University of Western Australia
University of Western Australia
The University of Western Australia was established by an Act of the Western Australian Parliament in February 1911, and began teaching students for the first time in 1913. It is the oldest university in the state of Western Australia and the only university in the state to be a member of the...

, 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
Australian Bureau of Statistics
The Australian Bureau of Statistics is Australia's national statistical agency. It was created as the Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics on 8 December 1905, when the Census and Statistics Act 1905 was given Royal assent. It had its beginnings in section 51 of the Constitution of Australia...

 in Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...

, 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
Curtin University of Technology
Curtin University is an Australian university based in Perth, Western Australia, with additional campuses in regional Western Australia and at Miri , Sydney and Singapore...

).

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.

Court government and Opposition Leader

In 1990, he was elected to the Western Australian Legislative Assembly
Western Australian Legislative Assembly
The Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of parliament in the Australian state of Western Australia. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Perth....

 for the seat of Cottesloe
Electoral district of Cottesloe
The Electoral district of Cottesloe is a Legislative Assembly electorate in the state of Western Australia. Cottesloe is named for the western Perth suburb of Cottesloe which falls within its borders.-History:...

, and was immediately promoted to the Opposition front bench. In 1992 he was elected Deputy Leader of the Opposition.
After the 1993 state election
Western Australian state election, 1993
Elections were held in the state of Western Australia on 6 February 1993 to elect all 57 members to the Legislative Assembly and all 34 members to the Legislative Council...

 which saw the Liberals take power under Richard Court
Richard Court
Richard Fairfax Court AC , was a Western Australian politician, representing the seat of Nedlands in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly for the Liberal Party of Australia from 1982 to 2001. He served as Premier of Western Australia from 1993 to 2001.Court was born into an old political...

, Barnett became Minister for Resources Development and Energy and later, Minister for Education and Minister for Tourism in the Court-Cowan Ministry
Court-Cowan Ministry
The Court-Cowan Ministry was the 32nd Ministry of the Government of Western Australia, and was led by Liberal Premier Richard Court and his deputy, the Nationals' Hendy Cowan. It succeeded the Lawrence ministry on 16 February 1993, following the defeat of the Labor government at the 1993 election...

. 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
Western Australian state election, 2001
Elections were held in the state of Western Australia on 10 February 2001 to elect all 57 members to the Legislative Assembly and all 34 members to the Legislative Council...

. Outgoing Premier, Richard Court, attempted to install federal MP Julie Bishop
Julie Bishop
Julie Isabel Bishop is an Australian politician and the current Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Parliament of Australia. She holds this title as the deputy leader of the Liberal Party of Australia. She is the party's first female Deputy Leader and the third woman in Australian history to...

 as new leader of the opposition. After this effort failed, Barnett became leader of the Liberal Opposition.

At the 2005 state election
Western Australian state election, 2005
Elections were held in the state of Western Australia on 26 February 2005 to elect all 57 members to the Legislative Assembly and all 34 members to the Legislative Council...

, Barnett, proposed the construction of a canal from the rivers
Kimberley-Perth Canal
The Kimberley-Perth Canal is a recurrent proposal to channel water from the Kimberley region of Western Australia to the southwestern capital of Perth, a distance of approximately...

 of the Kimberley Ranges
Kimberley region of Western Australia
The Kimberley is one of the nine regions of Western Australia. It is located in the northern part of Western Australia, bordered on the west by the Indian Ocean, on the north by the Timor Sea, on the south by the Great Sandy and Tanami Deserts, and on the east by the Northern Territory.The region...

 in northern Western Australia to Perth to meet Perth's growing water supply problem. The proposal was costed by Barnett at A$
Australian dollar
The Australian dollar is the currency of the Commonwealth of Australia, including Christmas Island, Cocos Islands, and Norfolk Island, as well as the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu...

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
Prime Minister of Australia
The Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the highest minister of the Crown, leader of the Cabinet and Head of Her Majesty's Australian Government, holding office on commission from the Governor-General of Australia. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful...

, John Howard
John Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....

, 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
Matt Birney
Matthew John Birney is an Australian politician. He was a Liberal member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly from 2001 to 2008, serving as Leader of the Opposition from 2005 to 2006....

, the member for Kalgoorlie
Electoral district of Kalgoorlie
Kalgoorlie is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Western Australia.The district includes not only the town of Kalgoorlie, but significant parts of the outback in central and eastern Western Australia....

, 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
Troy Buswell
Troy Raymond Buswell is currently the Liberal member for the Western Australian Legislative Assembly seat of Vasse, and the Minister for Transport and Minister for Housing. He was Leader of the Opposition for several months in 2008, then served as Treasurer of Western Australia in the Barnett...

 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
Deidre Willmott
Deidre Willmott is an Australian Business Manager. She is currently the "Group Manager, Approvals and Government Relations" for the Fortescue Metals Group.She was born in Bridgetown, Western Australia. She studied law at the University of Western Australia...

 (who would subsequently be appointed as his Chief of Staff) had been endorsed in his electorate. On 7 August 2008, Premier Alan Carpenter
Alan Carpenter
Alan John Carpenter is a former Australian politician. He was the 28th Premier of Western Australia, serving from 2006 to 2008. He took office following the resignation of Dr Geoff Gallop...

 called an early election for 6 September 2008. Barnett led the Liberal Party to the election
Western Australian state election, 2008
A general election was held in the state of Western Australia on Saturday 6 September 2008 to elect 59 members to the Legislative Assembly and 36 members to the Legislative Council...

, which saw a significant swing away from the incumbent Labor Party, leading to a hung parliament
Hung parliament
In a two-party parliamentary system of government, a hung parliament occurs when neither major political party has an absolute majority of seats in the parliament . It is also less commonly known as a balanced parliament or a legislature under no overall control...

. On 14 September 2008, the National Party
National Party of Western Australia
The National Party of Western Australia is a political party in Western Australia. It is affiliated with the National Party of Australia but maintains a separate structure and identity....

 agreed to support the Liberal Party as a minority government, and Barnett was sworn into office on 23 September 2008.

As Premier, Colin Barnett became the leader of the only opposed state towards Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's
Kevin Rudd
Kevin Michael Rudd is an Australian politician who was the 26th Prime Minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010. He has been Minister for Foreign Affairs since 2010...

 key Health reform policy deal at the April 2010 COAG
Council of Australian Governments
The Council of Australian Governments is an organisation consisting of the federal government, the governments of the six states and two mainland territories and the Australian Local Government Association. It was established in May 1992 after agreement by the then Prime Minister, Premiers and...

 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 Government's to forfeit 30% of their GST
Goods and Services Tax (Australia)
The GST is a broad sales tax of 10% on most goods and services transactions in Australia. It is a value added tax, not a sales tax, in that it is refunded to all parties in the chain of production other than the final consumer....

 revenue. 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 believes that if Western Australia handed over 30% of the only GST revenue it receives it 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
Peter van Onselen
Professor Peter van Onselen is the Contributing Editor at The Australian newspaper where he writes a weekly Saturday Focus column, a Wednesday column for the Business back-page and a fortnightly column in the Higher Education section. He also writes a weekly column in the Sunday Telegraph and...

 as a preservation of the states' rights.

Controversial Policies

In October 2004, Barnett led a campaign to re-criminalise homosexuality for anyone under the age of 18. This policy was met with fierce criticism from the community and was opposed by 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
Geoff Gallop
Geoffrey Ian Gallop, AC is an Australian academic and former politician. He was the Premier of Western Australia from 2001 to 2006. He currently resides in Sydney.-Early life and education:...

'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
Peter Abetz
Peter Abetz is an Australian politician. Peter Abetz holds a Bachelor of Agricultural Science and a Bachelor of Divinity. In the 2008 Western Australian state election, he was the Liberal Party candidate for the Labor-held seat of Southern River...

, voiced support for these laws in parliament by drawing reference to the work Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...

 did to bring security to Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

. Barnett stood by Abetz's statements, saying he was making a valid point.

External links

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