An emotional Bill Johnston has used his valedictory speech to parliament to thank the state’s business leaders for their support over his career, while calling out the state of modern politics
An emotional Bill Johnston has used his valedictory speech to parliament to thank the state’s business leaders for their support over his career, while calling out the state of modern politics.
A WA Labor stalwart and former state secretary, Mr Johnston entered parliament in 2008 and will depart ahead of the 2025 state election, after deciding not to recontest his seat of Cannington.
Mr Johnston thanked those who had helped him over his years as a Labor figure – family, friends and colleagues – but warned ahead of 2025 that the nature of the political game was changing.
The former minister said the process of politics was under attack, and pointed to the breakdown of public debate as a key threat to public policy and decision making.
“How can you debate policy if everyone you talk to agrees with you?” Mr Johnston asked.
“How can you have a debate if you label anyone who disagrees with you?”
Mr Johnston alluded to the proliferation of misinformation in political debate and suggested parties needed to be more accountable to their promises and costings.
“Once upon a time, we agreed the facts and then argued the consequences,” he said.
“Now, we live in a post-truth world. How can complex policy issues be progressed if conspiracies and innuendo are given the same value as facts and analysis?
“What is the point of election policies if costings and timelines are considered boring details?
“We can all do better.”
Mr Johnston was mines and petroleum minister between 2017 and 2023, energy minister from 2018 until 2023, and held a range of other business-focused portfolios over his time in cabinet.
Government and business are never far from one another in Western Australia, as Mr Johnston’s speech highlighted.
He acknowledged several business figures by name, including former Liberal Party of WA and ex-Chamber of Minerals and Energy chief executive Paul Everingham, Association of Mining and Exploration chief executive Warren Pearce and former Australian Energy Producers WA director turned Chevron government affairs manager Claire Wilkinson.
Mr Johnston also thanked Sternship Advisers chair Neil Hamilton and Viburnum non-executive director Tony Howarth for their friendship, and acknowledged Clough Consulting Services founder and former Woodside government affairs manager Peter Clough’s impact on his career.
“He put me in touch with many people in the mining industry, too many to name, who were happy to educate me on how mining works,” Mr Johnston said of Mr Clough, whom he appointed to the Synergy board in 2019.
Featuring twice in the Business News Power 500, Mr Johnston was seen as a fix-it man within the McGowan and Cook Labor governments and is one of the most senior among a slew of Labor figures departing the parliament at next year’s ballot.
Following Mr Johnston's resignation announcement last year, Premier Roger Cook described him as the most technically proficient minister in his cabinet.
Returning serve today, Mr Johnston said Mr Cook was someone who was always going to go far and his deputy, Rita Saffioti, as having no equal in being across policy detail.
He also reflected on the rise of former premier Mark McGowan.
“Mark McGowan became the dominating personality in WA politics like no-one before him,” Mr Johnston said.
“No observer of politics in 2016 predicted how dominating Mark McGowan would become.”
Today is parliament’s last sitting day for 2024.
