Richard Court was the premier of Western Australia from 1993 to the year 2001. He represented the Liberal Party in the seat of Nedlands. The liberal party was in a fairly safe position to win the election in February 2001 - the main opposition, the Australian Labor Party, needed a swing of 11 seats to topple the governing party. But more about that in a minute.


Richard Court is a conservative. Forget about the name of the party, that don't mean nothing really except in terms of economic policy and is almost worth another entry altogether. His main platform for re-election was Law and Order.

He proposed a criminal register for convicted drug dealers that would list their name and address for ten years after they were caught. He has said since that if they were forced to leave the state then the proposal had done it's job.


personal comment: Nevermind that some would be forced to remain drug dealers as this is one of the few professions that do not look unkindly on a prior conviction (as opposed to other more legitimate jobs).

A week before the election several men were arrested and had their names printed in the state newspaper "the West Australian". Female police officers had dressed up as prostitutes and enticed the men with offers of sexual favors.

It seems that the main law and order platforms were the eradication of drug use and prostitution. It seems that he has failed to eradicate these two follies of humankind.

Back to the story - the liberal party got voted out. The labor party won by 13 seats. Bad luck Liberals.