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Premier; Minister for Public Sector Management; Federal Affairs; Science; Citizenship and Multicultural Interests
Dr Gallop was born in Geraldton on 27 September 1951. He attended primary and secondary schools in Geraldton before attending the University of Western Australia where he graduated with an Economics degree in 1971.
He was awarded the Rhodes Scholarship in 1972 and graduated in philosophy, politics and economics at the University of Oxford in 1974.
After gaining a Master of Philosophy degree at Murdoch University he returned to Oxford where he was a Research Fellow at Nuffield College from 1979 to 1981.
He was awarded his doctorate by Oxford University in 1983.
From 1981 to 1986 Dr Gallop was a lecturer in social and political theory at Murdoch University.
Dr Gallop served as a local government councillor with the City of Fremantle from 1983 to 1986.
In 1986 he contested and won the seat of Victoria Park for the Australian Labor Party in the Legislative Assembly.
After serving on the backbench for four years, he was elected a Minister in the Lawrence Labor Government in 1990.
He held a range of ministerial responsibilities during the three-year term of the Lawrence Government, including Education, Parliamentary and Electoral Reform, Fuel and Energy, Micro-Economic Reform and as Minister assisting the Treasurer.
In Opposition from 1993 to 2001, Dr Gallop held a large number of portfolios, including Treasury, Resources and Energy, Parliamentary and Electoral Reform, Public Sector Management, Accountability, Sport and Recreation, Aboriginal Affairs, Health, Federal Affairs, Regional Development and the South West.
In 1994, he was elected Deputy Leader of the State Parliamentary Labor Party. In October 1996, he was elected Leader and soon after in December of that same year, contested the State election as Labor Leader.
Dr Gallop is a strong advocate of improved accountability and political reform along the lines recommended by the Independent Commission on Government.
At the Constitutional Convention in Canberra in 1998 he played a leading role in the push for a directly-elected President.
In February 2001, Dr Geoff Gallop was elected the 31st Premier of Western Australia. This was a historic victory for the Labor Party, which won by a record 14 seats.
The Gallop Government’s key priorities are health, education and community safety.
Another key priority is job creation. Under the State Government’s sound financial management the economy is growing strongly; a number of major resource projects are underway, the most significant being the $25 billion LNG contract with China.
Dr Gallop is committed to the protection of the environment and sustainable development. On coming to office the Gallop Government acted immediately to end logging in old growth forests. The State Government recently expressed its commitment to the protection and proper management of the Ningaloo Coast. Ningaloo Reef is Australia's longest fringing reef and home to some of the world's most spectacular sea life and pristine beaches.
Dr Gallop has been active on a wide range of community and sporting associations in his electorate and was on the Board of the Association of the Blind (1988 – 2001), Canning College (1993 – 2001), and the Victoria Park Senior Citizens Welfare Association (1986 – 2001).
He was awarded a Life Membership of the Association of the Blind (WA) in 2001.
His sporting interests are many and varied. He played cricket for UWA and Nedlands in the WACA competition and for Murdoch University in the Suburban Turf Competition. He is patron of the WA Volleyball Association and the WA Table Tennis Association and vice patron and Number One Ticket-holder of the Swan Districts Football Club. He is also patron of a range of local sporting clubs in his electorate.
A keen historian, he has published pamphlets outlining the history of each of the ten suburbs in his electorate.
He has published two books: Pigs Meat: Selected Writings of Thomas Spence (Spokesman, Nottingham, 1982) and A State of Reform: essays for a better future (Helm Wood, Perth, 1998).
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