Harry Phillips and David Black
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GEOFF GALLOP A NEW GENERATION LABOR MAN Harry Phillips and David Black 10 February 2001 Geoff Gallop led the Australian Labor Party OnALP to electoral victory in Western Australia and became the 27th ofthat state His first premier political stint had been t l1 ee years as a local councillor government in Fremantle he had accumulated nearly 15 years of parliamentary experience since then after winning the traditionally Labor Legislative Assembly seat ofVictoria Park in a by election Signifi cantly at that stage he described himself as a new generation Labor 1 man In parliament he was very active in terms of speech making and committee work including a term as chair of the influential Public Accounts Committee often regarded as a stepping stone to the ministry Under premier Carmen Lawrence from 1990 until the ALP lost office three years later he had had a range ofministerial responsibilities includ and electoral ingeducation parliamentary reform fuel and energy md economic refoim Thereafter in opposition he was allocated a large number of shadow portfolios eventually succeeding Jim McGinty now Attorney General as leader ofthe opposition in a smooth transition of power a few months before the 1996 state election This relatively long apprenticeship meant that when Gallop became premier there was a lot of information on the public record about the key elements ofhis polit ical thought and even his style though there was conjecture about how the former university lecturer in social and political theory would lead his new government This account canvasses Gallop s early family history educational background and political thought and attempts to assess his premiership focusing on his role as an election campaigner policy broker decision maker and crisis manager 116 YES PREMIER GEOFF GALLOP A NEW GENERATION LABOR MAN 117 Senator Geoff As a scholar Gallop s record was outstanding and in the course of Born on 27 September 1951 in the country town ofGeraldton some 500 completing his several academic qualifications he won a number ofm or kilometres north of Perth Gallop was a descendant of one of the state s prizes After completing undergraduate studies in philosophy politics and at the best known pioneering families His great great grandfather on his father s economics University of Western Australia he was selected as a Rhodes Scholar side James Gallop and his brothers Richard and Edward arrived on the in 1972 he followed the same areas ofinterest at Oxtcld Lotlls in 1829 they were part of the first group of European settlers to University Further postgraduate courses at Ivlurdoch University 1975 77 arrive in the Swan River colony His great great grandmother also caIne to and Oxford 1979 81 as a Nuffield Fellow eventually led to the award of Western Australia in that tlrst fleet House in Nedlands is a reminder a Doctor of from Gallop Philosophy Oxford in 1983 Gallop also held a range of of the family s early prominence in the state They played a part in the tutoring positions before becoming a lecturer in social and political theory development of North Perth Fremantle and York through market garden at Murdoch University fiom 1981 to 1986 Significantly his student days 2 ing and wine production were marked by a shift ofpolitical allegiance from Liberal to Labor Initially GeotT s father was a he the Gallop Douglas John Gallop company secretary joined university Liberal club where one ofhis close colleagues was whose political leanings were similar to those espoused by Bob Menzies Bob French who later became president of the Native Title Tribunal and and Charles Court However his mother Eunice came ttom a family with then a Federal Court judge However Gallop became uncomfortable with trade union and Labor atliliations and the honsehold was one where polit the conservatism of the Liberal Party particularly its continued commit avoided ical debate was not His parents never attempted to steer him ment to the Vietnam War In the wave of change roused by federal Labor towards but a friend known as Auntie used to call politics family Dorothy leader Gough Whitlam in 1972 he accepted an invitation ttom Bob 4 the young Geoff Senator Perhaps she read his schoolboy essay making McMullan to join the ALP the for Australia to become a and she would not case republic perhaps Gallop also became a political radio commentator and by 1983 he have been his attendance at the 1999 Constitutional Conven surprised by was providing expert commentary on the state and federal elections 7 tion for a with a elected arguing republic directly president Although living Some time after he had been elected to the Legislative Assembly he in a war service home with his parents and a brother and a sister a number of Gallop published his speeches under the title Labors 5 parliamentary that never wanted for anything His parents stayed in Geraldton Case says for Parliamentary Democracy and later many of his thoughts vvere throughout his childhood and he completed his primary education at the captured in another publication A State f R form Essays jJI a Better local Beachlands Primary School From 1964 to 1968 he attended Gerald Future Helm Wood Publishers Wembley 1998 The latter included a ton Senior School where he was both an student and a High outstanding foreword by Tony Blair Britain s Prime Minister whom Gallop had keen sportsman and a school in his tlnal year Cricket was a major become close friends prefect with at Oxford University and who had on two interest but he also a ofother Australian rules K played range sports including occasiqns been to Perth to stay with the to Blair i Gallops AccordingL tootball and tennis and he was also a keen debater and actor his tlrst Gallop was public role was in a primary school theatrical production staged in the one ofthe most decent quite simply straightforward people you Geraldton Town Hall When he moved to Perth to commence his tertiary could meet he is also one ofthe and most studies cricket tor the then tor Nedlands the brightest thought Gallop played university in He ful influenced me enormously both at University in Oxford WACA competition and then for Murdoch in the suburban turf competi and after the great thing about Geoff is his intellectual hon tion In addition he was a member ofthe and table tennis asso volleyball esty in essence he has extracted the core values ofthe Labor ciations His interest in Aussie rules continues and as he received premier Party s tradition justice community citizenship the belief the honour of the No 1 ticket holder for Swan Districts in the state as being that individuals we prosper best within a strong and unified league and membership of the West Coast Eagles society ofothers GEOFF GALLOP A NEW GENERATION 119 118 YES PREMIER LABOR MAN 16 social later as he was to admit that In April 2004 Gallop visited Blair at 10 Downing Street with a contin good Many years premier prepared sometime down the track I am interested in Australia s role in the world gent ofstudents who were on tour visiting war memorials promoting the 17 and that would mean to the federal This statement ANZAC tradition While Gallop and Blair had to agree to disagree on the entry parliament may have been the of Western Australia wisdom of participating in the Iraq War it was a meeting of two articulate prompted by galling experience having scrutinised the entorcers ofnational and crit and educated third way Labor leaders both ofwhom viewed their parties by competition policy being icised for not hours and such as as vehicles for political participation rather than for ideological dogma and deregulating liquor trading some products The Commonwealth Western Australia for this finan both of whose policy packages could be depicted as inclusive not class potatoes penalised and out ofhand for continued ridden Also both have reputations for delivering keynote addresses to cially rejected Gallop s arguments regulation based on a of social major forums In recognition of his study and practice of public adminis concept good his as a tration the Institute of Public Administration made Gallop a National During early years parliamentarian Gallop continued to display Fellow in 2003 10 a keen interest in constitutional issues particularly the role ofthe Legislative Council and to contribute ideas to the field In essence his proposals gave to the lower house while still o recocrnition to the role of an Making modern Australian democracy work primacy b ivingrLb upper house acting as a house ofreview Despite the fact that the ALP had In his maiden speech in the WA parliament in 1986 Gallop argued strongly never commanded a majority in WA s Legislative Council which was for constitutional reform In his opinion the two basic state Acts the CO1sti weighted tovvards rural did not support the tution Act 1889 WA and the CO1stitution Acts Amcndnlcnt Act 1899 WA heavily representation Gallop old Labor policy ofabolishing the upper house He was also dismissive of a needed to be consolidated into one with meaning given to key terms such Liberal Party proposal in 1988 to introduce a form ofcitizen initiated refer as responsible government premier Cabinet and opposition The endum to be limited to the repeal or veto of passed language needed to be made clearer in the interests of political education legislation through parliament He noted that parliamentary representatives often have to take generally and in the interests of interpretation so that it is harder for the 11 the interests offilture generations and the wishes ofminority into lawyers to read