Career
He entered the Parliament of Western Australia in 1988, after winning a by-election in the Electoral district of Ascot. That seat was abolished for the general election held a year later, and Ripper followed most of his constituents into the recreated seat of Belmont, which he holds today. Ripper served as Minister for Community Services and Minister for Disability Services in the Lawrence Ministry (1991–1993).
Labor was defeated in the 1993 election, and Ripper served as an opposition frontbencher for eight years, eventually rising to Deputy Leader of the state Labor Party under Geoff Gallop. Labor regained government in 2001, and Ripper was named Deputy Premier of Western Australia. At various times during Gallop's tenure, he served as Treasurer, Minister for Government Enterprises, Minister for Energy and Minister Assisting the Minister for Public Sector Management in the Gallop government. After Gallop's retirement from politics in 2006, Ripper briefly served as acting premier until Gallop's official resignation as Premier when Alan Carpenter was elected as state Labor leader and premier. Under Carpenter, Ripper served as Deputy Premier and Treasurer.
Ripper succeeded Carpenter as WA leader of the ALP on 23 September 2008. In January 2011, Labor MP Ben Wyatt intended to challenge Ripper for the Labor leadership, but withdrew after finding minority support amongst caucus. On 17 January 2012, Ripper announced that he would stand down as Opposition Leader at a caucus meeting on 23 January, and retire from parliament at the 2013 state election. Mark McGowan, who had been managing opposition business in the House, was elected unopposed as his successor.
Read more about this topic: Eric Ripper
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“Work-family conflicts—the trade-offs of your money or your life, your job or your child—would not be forced upon women with such sanguine disregard if men experienced the same career stalls caused by the-buck-stops-here responsibility for children.”
—Letty Cottin Pogrebin (20th century)
“What exacerbates the strain in the working class is the absence of money to pay for services they need, economic insecurity, poor daycare, and lack of dignity and boredom in each partner’s job. What exacerbates it in upper-middle class is the instability of paid help and the enormous demands of the career system in which both partners become willing believers. But the tug between traditional and egalitarian models of marriage runs from top to bottom of the class ladder.”
—Arlie Hochschild (20th century)
“I’ve been in the twilight of my career longer than most people have had their career.”
—Martina Navratilova (b. 1956)