THE ever adversarial Agriculture and Food Minister Alannah MacTiernan has left her mark on the State's agricultural industry, finishing up in the role next month.
While some of her detractors will be jumping up and down at the announcement of her retirement from politics earlier this week, others have a grudging respect for the minister who, in the face of her critics, committed to the job of serving the sector and continued to push new ways and concepts to help move the industry forward.
After 26 years of parliamentary service and holding the regional development, agriculture and food portfolios for almost six of her 13 years as a minister, Ms MacTiernan said her decision to retire from politics had been two fold.
"Whilst I have a complete interest and passion in the portfolio areas I have been doing, it is a very high demanding and totally absorbing job...and you come to a point where you have to have space for a few other things in your life," Ms MacTiernan said.
"I have also always been really encouraging of the people coming up behind me, so I think it's only fair that others get a crack and have the opportunity to have a go."
Reflecting on her time at agriculture's helm, she is proud of what she has achieved for the industry, stabilising and returning R&D capability and resources back into the department, rebuilding the State's agricultural research stations and "going in to bat" for farmers who wished to look at different farming practices and systems.
"I've fought hard to get rights for pastoralists for carbon farming and continued to support them in getting a much more profound understanding of soil biology," Ms MacTiernan said.
"But there are people who feel if you are supporting these different types of farming systems, then you are criticising them - I don't accept that.
"We need to have our eyes open, be prepared for the future and have a look at these new practices, which are effectively old practices that have a lot more science thrown behind them."
Pastoralists and Graziers' Association of WA (PGA) president Tony Seabrook said despite their differing views over the years, Ms MacTiernan had been a larger than life minister who had made an enormous effort to contribute to the industry.
"There have been many occasions where she has brought to the table her views and perspective, not necessarily all that well informed and that has given us a fair degree of concern, but she has certainly been committed to the job and given it her wholehearted effort," Mr Seabrook said.
"Without a doubt she has been a very colourful minister to deal with."
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Looking forward as to who her replacement will be, Mr Seabrook said in the face of a lot of encouragement he had never called for Ms MacTiernan's resignation because he did not see anyone within the Labor Party's ranks as her natural successor.
"The Labor Party is bereft of talent in agricultural expertise and if I thought there was someone there of the calibre that our industry needs - I might have been calling for that person to have replaced the minister on certain occasions," Mr Seabrook said.
"We have seen some very inexperienced ministers appointed to positions of incredible power and influence and if you aren't able to bring the depth of experience and knowledge to a job then you fall under the control or manipulation of your advisers and that is a grave concern."
Liberal Agricultural Region MLC Steve Martin said while you didn't need to be a farmer to be a good agricultural minister, someone who had both parliamentary experience and knowledge of the sector would be preferable.
"Most importantly though, we need someone who is willing to listen to the sector," Mr Martin said.
"Alannah's resignation gives the Premier a great opportunity to choose someone who's views on the live sheep trade align more closely with his - which is that it's well regulated, sustainable, viable and has a future.
"Alannah has had a mighty career and, while some of our views don't align, I certainly respect the effort and hard work she's put in over the years."
The minister's parliamentary secretary and member for the Agricultural Region Darren West confirmed to Farm Weekly he had already indicated his interest in the position to the Premier.
"We need a good regional voice in the cabinet and we are a bit light on in that regard, as we only have three regional cabinet ministers out of 17, so should that be the way that caucus wants to go, I'll certainly put my hand up," Mr West said.
However with Ms MacTiernan's departure leaving only four women in cabinet, Mr West said he also strongly believed more women needed to fill those positions to serve best as a government.
"We have very many capable women in our caucus that are parliamentary secretaries and that are on the back bench, so I suspect the caucus will choose a woman and then the Premier will choose who gets what portfolio," Mr West said.
Having served as Ms MacTiernan's parliamentary secretary for almost six years, Mr West said the minister had overtaken Kim Chance as the best agriculture minister the State has ever had.
"Alannah rebuilt the department, put investment back into research and stopped the gutting of public agriculture investment," he said.
"It's a very conservative sector and to challenge the 'this is the way we've always done it' mentality was always going to be difficult, but she took it on and earned much of the industry's respect."
Having previously been diagnosed with breast cancer in 2019 and subsequently undergoing treatment and being declared cancer-free in 2020, Ms MacTiernan said she was in full health and was looking forward to travelling overseas next year.
