I, too, am curious of your impression of Carpenter as "a very decent individual", something which many WAians would not agree with. He's been obstinate in his approach of jobs for mates, to the detriment of the party, and in particular a certain eastern metro seat who lost a popular hardworking member, who'd transformed a marginal seat onto a safe seat, when she was dumped by Alan.

Sure, he was no Costa, but he was also a very poor choice to follow Gallop, or be allowed unchecked power as he was.