Western Australia’s Labor Premier Mark McGowan has resigned after over six years and two months in the job.

He said at the press conference announcing his resignation:

‘But the truth is I’m tired, extremely tired. In fact, I’m exhausted. The role of political leadership does not stop, it is relentless with huge responsibility but it is all-consuming, each and every day. And combined with the Covid years, it has taken it out of me.’

Maybe he realised we are tired and exhausted of him and his failures.

Tired of the record-breaking ambulance ramping figures.

Tired of a shortage of nurses in our hospitals.

Tired of the increasing crime rate.

Tired of police officers resigning in record numbers.

Tired of his lack of accountability over things that happened under his watch, like the Perth Mint fiasco, where gold bullion was allegedly diluted or ‘doped’ and sent to China, which McGowan dismissed in Parliament as a ‘storm in a f…g teacup’.

And also the disgraceful waste of $580 million on procuring rapid antigen tests which the state Auditor-General Caroline Spencer said cost twice as much as the Bunbury hospital redevelopment. To this, Spencer added she had never before witnessed such escalation in the cost of a program over such a short timeframe, occurring with a lack of due consideration of the impacts, or without a record of anyone pausing to ask what level of procurement was sufficient and whether this had been achieved.

We are tired of McGowan thumbing his nose at petitions to Parliament requesting he make public the advice he received on the Voice.

So much for his promise of ‘gold-standard transparency’.

We are tired of budget overruns on his pet ‘Metronet’ rail project, which is also two years behind schedule.

We are also tired of his embarrassing comments and behaviour over Australia’s relationship with China.

And, above all, we are tired of him boasting how he ‘led us successfully through Covid’.

McGowan, crying in his press conference today, was a kick in the guts to all those he prevented from entering the state to say a final goodbye to their parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, even their children who suffered unimaginably because they were cut-off from their families.

He blocked people from coming to Western Australia on compassionate grounds, while footballers could come and go as they pleased.

This is the Premier who cut Western Australia off from the country and the world for over 600 days, and then after all that decided to keep borders closed for another three months because we weren’t properly prepared.

Let’s not forget there are presently laws in this state which allow the Police Commissioner to declare a Covid emergency at the drop of a hat, thereby allowing officers to forcibly enter people’s homes without a warrant and lock them into a quarantine facility to enforce such an emergency.

With a record like that, no wonder he is leaving.

Maybe it is a case of Aprés moi, le deluge.