About Geoff Gallop
Geoffrey Ian Gallop (born 27 September 1951) is an Australian academic and former politician who was the premier of Western Australia from 16 February 2001 to 25 January 2006. A member of the Labor Party, he served in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly from 1986 to 2006 and was a minister in the Lawrence government from 1990 to 1993. Born and raised in Geraldton, Gallop studied economics at the University of Western Australia before attending the University of Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship. He completed a Master of Philosophy at Murdoch University and a Doctor of Philosophy at Oxford before working as a lecturer at Murdoch and a City of Fremantle councillor from 1983. In 1986, Gallop was elected to the Western Australian Legislative Assembly for the seat of Victoria Park. Carmen Lawrence appointed him to cabinet after his role in the 1990 leadership spill, but lost his cabinet position after Labor's defeat in the 1993 state election. Gallop became the leader of the state Labor Party close to the 1996 state election, in which he led Labor to defeat. He stayed on as leader, leading the party to victory in the 2001 state election, defeating the eight-year-old Coalition government led by Richard Court. As premier, Gallop ended the logging of old-growth forests, started construction of the Perth–Mandurah rail line, increased the leaving age of school students from 15 to 17, introduced one vote, one value electoral reform in the Legislative Assembly, and commissioned the state's first major desalination plant at Kwinana. Generally popular throughout his time as premier, Gallop led Labor to a second victory in 2005, but in January 2006, he resigned from parliament due to depression. He was succeeded as premier and Labor leader by Alan Carpenter. Gallop has since worked as a professor at the University of Sydney, and chaired the Australian Republican Movement from 2012 to 2015. Gallop's family was among the first pioneer settlers to the new Swan River Colony now known as Perth in Western Australia. He joined the Labor Party in 1971, and was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship in 1972. Edward Gallop later drowned but James and Richard became pioneering market gardeners and vignerons. Gallop became Premier and Minister for Public Sector Management, Federal Affairs, Science, Citizenship and Multicultural Interests.
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