Mark McGowan
Mark McGowan (13 July 1967—) is an Australian politician who has served as the 30th premier of Western Australia since March 2017. He has been the leader of the Western Australian branch of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) since 2012 and a member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Rockingham since 1996.
McGowan was born and raised in Newcastle, New South Wales. He attended the University of Queensland and worked as a legal officer for the Royal Australian Navy, serving at naval base HMAS Stirling, south of Perth.
After settling in Western Australia, he was elected as a councillor for the City of Rockingham from 1994, and was later elected to the Western Australian Legislative Assembly at the 1996 election. In 2001, he was made Parliamentary Secretary to Premier Geoff Gallop, and was later a Cabinet Minister in both the Gallop and Carpenter Governments from 2005 to 2008.
In January 2012, McGowan was elected leader of the Labor party in Western Australia, and won premiership in the 2016 state election. He has described his political strategy as "centrist", saying "you have got to appeal to everyone."
McGowan supported Voluntary Assisted Dying becoming legal in Western Australia, as quoted by Shine and O'Flaherty in 2021:
"Death is a difficult issue, and we don't like thinking about what the end of our lives may look like. I am sure many will find comfort in the fact these laws mean neither they nor their loved ones will be forced to suffer needlessly at the end of their lives. That is why so many Western Australians fought so hard for so long to bring about these laws, and why the WA community supported them so emphatically."
(via Wikipedia)
Shine, R. & O'Flaherty, A. (2021, 29 July). Voluntary assisted dying laws used for first time in WA as terminally ill person ends their life. ABC News. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-29/voluntary-assisted-dying-laws-used-for-first-time-in-wa/100333178