King’s Birthday Honours: Mark McGowan appointed Companion of the Order of Australia for service to WA

Mark McGowan has been awarded Australia’s highest civilian honour in recognition of his nearly three decades in politics, a career that culminated in his stewardship of WA through the COVID pandemic and one of the most dominant election victories in the State’s history. Mr McGowan is among just six appointments to the exclusive Companion of the Order of Australia in the King’s Birthday Honours List unveiled on Sunday night. The long-serving Rockingham MP’s decision to cut off WA from the rest of the nation early in the pandemic — in pursuit of an eradication strategy — propelled him to a level of popularity unlikely to be repeated. The “island within an island” approach ensured West Australians spent just 12 total days in lockdown, shielding the hospital system from the onslaught of COVID cases witnessed on the east coast. It also enabled the State’s resources sector to operate uninterrupted throughout the pandemic, safeguarding billions in royalties and taxes that helped keep the national economy afloat. Mr McGowan rode his rock-star status to a crushing 2021 election victory, reducing the Liberals to a paltry two seats in the Legislative Assembly and stripping Labor’s traditional foes of their formal opposition status. His AC appointment was for “eminent service to the People and Parliament of Western Australia, to public health and education, and to international trade relations”. Mr McGowan — who has eschewed the media spotlight since his shock resignation as premier a year ago — declined to be interviewed about the award. In a statement, he said he was “humbled and honoured” and thankful to “whoever nominated me”. “My deep gratitude goes to the people of WA for being so kind to me,” Mr McGowan said. “Thank you to my former colleagues, staff and the Labor Party. “I was very fortunate to have their support during my time as Premier and throughout my parliamentary career. Without that support, I would not have achieved anything. “Can I thank my parents, Mary and Dennis, and in-laws Gwen and Neil Miller? “To my wife Sarah and children Samuel, Alexander and Amelia — this award and acknowledgement belongs to you.” A naval lawyer raised in NSW, Mr McGowan launched his political career on Rockingham council – which took in the Garden Island Naval Base at which he worked. After being influenced by then-Deputy Prime Minister Kim Beazley, Mr McGowan was elected to Parliament in 1996. He entered Cabinet as tourism, racing, and gaming minister under Geoff Gallop in 2005 before switching to environment and then education when Alan Carpenter took the helm. Perth’s first small bar licence was granted in late 2007 following reforms spearheaded by Mr McGowan. This set the stage for a drastic makeover of WA’s hospitality scene that helped breathe new life into Northbridge and the CBD. As education minister, Mr McGowan began dismantling the outcomes-based education system — which was deeply unpopular with teachers and parents alike — while placing a greater emphasis on basics like phonics and numeracy. After losing power to the Colin Barnett-led Liberals in 2008, Mr McGowan stayed behind Labor leader Eric Ripper until replacing him as Opposition Leader in 2012. He would wait until 2017 to finally return to the government benches, dispatching Mr Barnett with a Labor campaign focused on WA’s mounting debt, headlined by the party’s flagship Metronet rail network. Immediate moves to trim the public service and introduce a restrictive government wages policy — coupled with windfall iron ore royalties and the GST fix implemented in 2018 — laid the stage for WA to regain its AAA credit rating in 2023, a decade after it was lost under Mr Barnett. Naturally conservative, Mr McGowan acted as a buffer against some of his more ideological Labor colleagues when it came to social causes. Still, he oversaw the passage in 2019 of WA’s highly contentious voluntary assisted dying laws — a Bill he specifically cited among his proudest achievements when announcing his resignation. Mr McGowan also implemented a ban on logging in native forests and expanded the total footprint of WA’s national parks by 20 per cent. Among his more contentious reforms was converting the Legislative Council into a single Statewide electorate, fulfilling a long-held Labor ambition for one vote, one value while stripping regional West Australians of guaranteed representation in the upper house. Net debt under Mr McGowan declined from $36.7 billion in 2017 to $27.4 billion by the time he quit, with WA widely regarded as a powerhouse of the national economy. On the infrastructure front, Mr McGowan can claim Metronet, the yet-to-commence women’s and babies’ hospital, WA’s third desalination plant in Alkimos, and a raft of major road upgrades and extensions. His legacy was stained by persistent unrest in the youth justice system, including repeated riots at Banksia Hill Juvenile Detention Centre that culminated — shortly after Mr McGowan’s departure — in the suicide of teenager Cleveland Dodd. Mr McGowan’s hardline approach to the issue — while popular with the public — created a rift in what was otherwise a remarkably stable and disciplined government. He shocked colleagues and the State with a bombshell resignation announced on May 29 last year. He said it was motivated by lingering exhaustion from the pandemic years. Mr McGowan’s Victorian contemporary, Daniel Andrews — who himself secured a landslide victory in 2022 at his third election — was also among this year’s six AC recipients. The others are businesswoman and recently appointed Governor-General Sam Mostyn, epidemiologist and cancer researcher Karen Canfell, composer Jonathan Mills, and the late Simon Crean, a former Federal Labor leader and long-serving Cabinet minister from Victoria.