Hello, I'm Mark McGowan, Premier of Western Australia, and I'm going Back to School with
Student Edge.
Tell us, what were you like as a teenager.
I was a lot quieter than I am now.
A lot more shy.
I tried hard at school.
I was very attached to my parents and my brother.
I was good at History.
Modern History and Ancient History.
Were you too shy?
Was that a problem for you growing up?
Or were you just happy to be quiet, kept to yourself?
Well, what happened was I changed high schools three times during my time at high school.
So each time I changed high school, I became shy again, you know, because I didn't know
anyone.
And then, you know, you get to know people and then you change high school again, and
you become shy again.
So, it takes a little while to get used to a group of people who already had their set group of
friends and that sort of thing.
So I found that in high school.
It actually stood me in good stead actually in my last couple years of high school because
I changed high school and that meant I studied a lot more.
In Year 11 and 12, changed school.
I went to public schools, in the country, and I studied a lot more in Year 11 and 12
than I otherwise would've, so it probably worked well for me.
So what would you do then in your personal time, if you weren't necessarily hanging out
with a bunch of people?
How would you bide the time?
Was it just pouring yourself into study?
I did a lot of study.
I played a lot of squash.
I helped my mother and father a lot at the family business.
I used to work all the time.
I'm not saying I didn't have friends; I had friends.
In the early years of high school, I was much more social than in the later years.
Were there any subjects that you struggled with?
Yes.
That you maybe didn't enjoy.
Okay, so what were the ones you struggled with?
Mathematics.
Alright.
I wasn't good at mathematics.
I tried, I really tried, but I just...
I didn't have the confidence with maths and I always would forget formulas and all that,
so I wasn't good at it.
Whereas other subjects like History, English, Ancient History, I just clicked.
I remembered things.
One part of my brain works well, and the other part doesn't.
Now I understand that you got your Bachelor of Arts and then moved onto a Bachelor of
Laws.
No, I did them at the same time.
Same time.
So you got a Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Laws.
At that time, did you know what you wanted to be?
And what you wanted to do after uni?
Well, I wanted to study Law at high school because I wanted to do something that extended
myself, so I thought that would extend myself.
I did Arts at the same time, so I did Economics and Politics as part of my Arts degree and
did a law degree at the same time.
I found Law quite difficult, because there's huge amounts of remembering.
But a lot of people found that, so it wasn't unusual.
And what did I want to do?
I assumed I was gonna be a lawyer.
But I hadn't really thought that through.
Were you already politically active at that time?
Did you think in the future maybe some public service or working in politics?
Ah slightly.
Not really.
I mean, I joined a branch of the ALP, Bob Hawke was the Prime Minister, Paul Keating
was the Treasurer, they were quite inspirational figures for me.
I joined the party back when I finished high school, but I didn't really do much.
No, I just really threw myself into my study.
I lived in a college at university, so I sort of got right into the college life and I found
I came out of my shell a lot at college.
What was that like?
Going from country NSW, I believe, when you were in high school, and then moving into
this college lifestyle?
Was it a transition for you?
Yeah, I loved my parents a lot, I liked... living at home was great, but as soon as I
moved to college, and you had freedom and fun and lots and lots and lots of friends
and excitement in your life, it was like an awakening.
So you ended up joining the Navy around this time?
After your degrees?
No, I was in my fifth year.
Okay, alright.
So, when you make that transition- first of all, was that an out-of-left field choice
for you?
Was that something that had been at the back of your mind?
Or did you really want to change things up?
No, I hadn't thought about it before.
I tried to become a pilot.
Okay.
So, I was in my fifth year and I thought, I'm gonna try and become a pilot.
I can become a lawyer later.
I want to fly jets in the Air Force.
So, I went and applied for that.
They just did the initial testing and I failed, because my eye sight wasn't good enough.
But I would've failed it anyway, because I'm not much good at maths.
But I thought I'd try.
And when I was there they said, "You can become a legal officer in the Navy," so they gave
me the forms and I took them back to my sharehouse.
I was in a sharehouse by then, and my dad saw the forms - he came to visit - and he
said, "You should look at this."
I looked at it.
Put an application in and got accepted.
It was just a great experience, lots of great friends, interesting work.
I'd never complain about the Navy.
At what point did you kind-of throw yourself into politics properly, as an actual kind-of
career path?
Well, I'd settled on that's what I wanted to do in about 1993.
And I got elected in 1996.
So it was a very intensive period.
And how old were you around this time?
'93?
I would've been 25 or 26.
Okay, so you're in your twenties.
Did you feel like, "Okay, I'm entering politics, now in my twenties"- Did you feel like you
had to say goodbye to your twenties, to a degree?
When I was 25 I wasn't in politics.
Okay.
I thought, that's what I want to do.
Right.
So, I had to work my way through the party.
I got myself elected to the local council.
I got myself a position in the local branch.
I got to know lots of people.
And fortunately I got preselected in '96 and I got elected at the end of '96.
So, it was a four-year period of working my way through.
Which is relatively brief, compared to most people.
I didn't throw my twenties away.
I still had a lot of fun.
But I was focused.
As Premier, do you feel a responsibility of all the students who are going through under
your stewardship?
Do you want to move the needle for them in any particular way?
Well I want to make sure Western Australia has an outstanding education system and every
student who wants to do well has the opportunity to do so.
It's not just schooling.
Schooling's one aspect.
It's also family and the predeterminate, generally, of how well a child does at school is the
family interest in the child's schooling.
So that's why my wife and I are very focused.
I'm gonna encourage every family to be engaged and focused and encouraging when it comes
to their child's education.
Children who don't do well at school generally have parents who aren't interested.
When you look back on your teenage days, do you have any regrets?
I have lots of regrets.
I wish I was more outgoing.
There's no need to be shy or to lack confidence.
You need to realise you're just as good as everyone else.
But the positives of my upbringing were my mother and father and brother; they cared
about me immensely.
And I cared and care about them.
Just have faith in yourself; have confidence in yourself.
Don't get easily led by others, you know?
If you feel like something's wrong, remember.
Trust your own instinct.
There's lots of things you learn as you grow up, that if you could go back and repeat it,
you wouldn't make the mistakes you made, but no one goes through life never having made
a mistake and you've also got to accept that; that you will make mistakes in life, don't
let them get you down, it's part of life, it's part of growing up.
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