So we have a new premier!

Paul Murray in The West is correct to point out that no one’s spent much time commenting on what sort of a premier ol’ Gallop was, but ’twas a bit mean to say that he deliberately made people focus on his condition. (If any illness deserves a better public profile, it’s depression …)

So, I’ll pitch in my two bob on what Gallop was like, and guess at what to expect from Carpenter. For starters, plenty of people have commented on Geoff’s media savvy, which dovetailed nicely with the fact that he really was an earnest, ideological, and very smart political thinker. Carpenter is also smart and knows how to play the media (those old ABC News clips are so funny!) but I doubt he’s quite up to Gallop’s standard on either score, so he mightn’t seem to be so much in control.

Economically, Gallop’s performance seems much like John Howard’s: he hasn’t stuffed things up, but then he’s riding very strong growth (yay China!). Carpenter will inherit the same situation, and he’ll likely play with the inevitable surpluses to follow — we’re already hearing the phrase “tax cuts”.

Gallop does deserves credit for seeing sense on the Mandurah railway (I mean, seriously, Kenwick?), but he hasn’t quite met his election promise of ‘fixing’ health, with his reforms so far causing more controversy than benefit. Whether Carpenter will achieve more or less than this remains to be seen … there’s enough similarity to Mark Latham that comparisons are emerging, but Latham did have some real goals for reform while Carpenter’s goals are unclear.

It was interesting, though, that Tony Blair didn’t comment publicly on his old uni mate until yesterday’s monthly press conference (the transcript misspells as “Gallup”) and even then only in response to an ABC journo’s question.

In any case, I look forward to the day that we get a Gallop Freeway, and it’ll be gold simply because it’ll be our first-ever autobahn. After all, how could you possibly stick to 100 on a road with that name?