Joe Spagnolo: The exit of balladeer David Templeman from WA Parliament opens a new door

David Templeman is one of the nice guys of WA politics.

You’d be hard pressed to find anyone who has a bad word to say about the member for Mandurah, who’s also the Minister for Sport and Culture.

Whether it’s because of his jovial and sometimes passionate demeanour at press conferences and in Parliament, or the fact he can carry a tune, Templeman will leave parliament as one of its Mr Nice Guys.

He’ll be missed.

But Templeman’s decision to retire from politics at the next election does give Premier Roger Cook an opportunity to re-energise his tired-looking Cabinet.

Cook should not wait until after the next election to replace Templeman in the ministry.

Nor should he wait until after the March 8 poll to announce replacements for departing ministers Sue Ellery and John Quigley.

He should take the bull by the horns and replace the three senior minsters now.

He should show voters what a Labor ministry would look like if, as expected, Labor wins a third term of government.

In fact, I’d go further than three new faces in the Cook ministry.

I’d make it four new faces in Cabinet before the election.

I’d tell Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, Michelle Roberts, that one term in the prized gig was enough and that it was someone else’s turn to do that role.

Why not give the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly job to an existing minister, who perhaps needed a little persuasion to give up their ministerial gig?

Both jobs pay about the same.

A minister’s base salary is $306,000, compared to the Speaker’s $282,989.

There have been two changes to Labor’s Cabinet since Mark McGowan resigned as Premier in May 2023.

David Michael was promoted to Cabinet after McGowan’s exit.

And Hannah Beazley came in for Bill Johnston in 2023 when the member for Cannington announced he wasn’t contesting the next poll.

Unlike Quigley, Ellery and now Templeman, Johnston didn’t keep his position in Cabinet once he announced he was going.

Quigley, Ellery and Templeman have been loyal servants of WA Labor.

But why should they keep pulling a ministerial salary till March next year, given they’ve already announced they’re done?

Including the Premier, there are 17 Labor MPs in Cabinet.

But there are 53 Labor MPs in the Assembly and another 22 in the Legislative Council.

That’s a lot of hungry mouths to feed.

Labor has already lost Mt Lawley MP Simon Millman who is retiring at the election, and Swan Hills MP Jessica Shaw has also called time on her political career.

Would they have resigned if they had been made ministers?

Cook should be using the retirements of three ministers to present Labor as a new regime — post-Mark McGowan — going into this election.

Sixteen months after McGowan’s resignation, I get the impression from speaking to everyday West Australians that Cook is seen as a safe pair of hands.

To me, Cook looks like he is trying to hold the ship steady and not muck up as Labor tries for a third term of government.

It’s almost as if Labor knows and is comfortable with what is likely to transpire at the 2025 poll: lose some seats to the Liberals, still get over the line, and enjoy a third term of government.

I’d like to see something daring, something exciting, something mind-blowing from this current Labor administration as it heads to the next poll.

Injecting the Labor ministry, right now, with three new ministers isn’t mind blowing.

But it would at least send the message that McGowan’s Labor is gone — that there is a younger, fresher Labor ready to take on the challenges of the next four years, should they win in 2025.

I fully get that Cook might want to be respectful to Quigley, Ellery and Templeman and let them finish their careers as ministers — rather than backbenchers.

But as the saying goes: ‘It’s not personal. It’s strictly business.”