Peter Dowding

Leadership spill

Within six months of the 1989 election, some Labor MPs were dissatisfied with Dowding, finding him arrogant, rude, and difficult to work with. His popularity was also hurt by the District Court trial of Western Colleries Limited director Tony Lloyd. His defence lawyers had argued that Dowding and acting energy minister Grill had ordered Lloyd to pay off a Rothwells debt using a $15 million cheque. In January 1990, Lloyd was found guilty of acting improperly, making him the first person convicted for an offence relating to WA Inc. (Tony Lloyd was cleared of acting improperly in the court of appeal in May 1990.) Additionally, the 1990 Australian federal election was coming up, and the Labor Party wanted to limit the seats lost by the party in Western Australia. Having a state leader less associated with WA Inc would have helped with that.

In early 1990, Dowding travelled to the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, after Parker assured him that nothing would happen to his leadership while he was gone. State Secretary Stephen Smith, FMWU Secretary Jim McGinty, and seven Labor politicians – Lawrence, Parker, Taylor, Kay Hallahan, Keith Wilson, Geoff Gallop and Pam Beggs – met together to discuss Peter Dowding's leadership, all deciding that he should be forced out. By 7 February 1990, a majority of the 47 members of the Labor caucus had signed a letter calling for Dowding's resignation. He also held a cabinet meeting on 9 February. At a caucus meeting on 12 February, Dowding and Parker resigned from their positions. Lawrence was elected as the leader of the Labor Party and Taylor was elected as the deputy leader. They were sworn in as premier and deputy premier respectively later that day by the acting governor. On that day, Lawrence promised to end WA Inc. Dowding criticised the leadership challenge, saying that the timing was premature and was done to help Labor win the federal election, rather than for what's good for the state.

On 5 April 1990, Parker announced his impending resignation from Parliament. Although he planned on doing so later, Dowding resigned as well on 26 April 1990 to return to his career as a lawyer. Dowding said he had wanted to serve at least part of the upcoming session of Parliament, so he could defend his actions that lead to his downfall, but he resigned when he did at the request of Lawrence, who wanted the two by-elections to occur on the same day. Judy Edwards retained the seat for Labor, succeeding Dowding as the member for Maylands at the by-election.

WA Inc royal commission Lawrence initially resisted calls for a royal commission into WA Inc, but after months of pressure, she announced in November 1990 that the royal commission would go ahead.

Dowding testified in front of the commission in November 1991 regarding his dealings with Laurie Connell and Alan Bond, the bailout of Rothwells and the purchase of the Kwinana Petrochemical Plant. When asked if the state government had moved to safeguard the $150million guarantee to Rothwells, Dowding said "you don't assume that Bond would steal $1.2billion or that Mr Connell would deceive and live like a parasite off the state." When asked about the government's purchase of the petrochemical project, Dowding said that it was effectively a second rescue for Rothwells, but that he believed the project was viable and would not have made the deal otherwise.

The commission handed down its first report on 20 October 1992, which made adverse findings against Dowding. The report said that "we have found that Mr Dowding acted improperly in interfering in the business affairs of the SGIC." Dowding responded by saying that some of the commission's judgements of him were wrong, but that he was relieved the report did not find any of his decisions were corrupt or for financial gain.

Later life After leaving parliament, Dowding was admitted to the bar in New South Wales. He was a partner in Briggs Paul Dowding in Sydney from 1992 to 1994, and a managing partner of DCH Legal Group in Perth from 1993 to 1996. Since 1996, he has practiced family law. In 2002, he was appointed as Senior Counsel in Western Australia. He was a recipient of a Centenary Medal in 2003.

As of 2022, Dowding lives in South Fremantle. In August 2023, he released a book co-authored with Ken Spillman about the life of his uncle, Bruce Dowding, who was part of the French Resistance and worked to smuggle Allied servicemen out of Nazi-occupied France in 1940 and 1941. He was eventually caught by the Gestapo and executed in 1943.