popularity suffered in his second term as Premier due to scandals, including deals made between the government and the Premier's brother, Ken Court, as well as the finance broking scandal, where many elderly investors lost their savings and an inquiry found the Government ineffective and inefficient in managing the industry. Also important was the continued logging of old growth forests in the South West of Western Australia. A rejuvenated Labor Party, led since 1996 by Dr Geoff Gallop, won the state election on 10 February 2001 on a 13-seat, 7-point swing—a shift in voter sympathies not seen since the 1911 state election. Departure from politics On 14 February 2001, a few days after losing the election, Court refused to resign and endorse his long-serving deputy leader and factional rival Colin Barnett as Leader of the Opposition—defying media predictions by announcing he would stay for up to eight years. Court was from the conservative wing of the WA Liberals, while Barnett was from the moderate wing. He said he intended to continue in the role as other well-known contenders for party leadership had lost their seats at the election. Political commentator Matt Price described the decision to stay on as "insanity", although allowed for the possibility Court's main reason for staying on was to thwart the plans of his "barely tolerated deputy" by buying time for another contender. Initially, Barnett did not nominate for any position ahead of 21 February party room ballot, but on 19 February, announced he would stand against Court for the leadership, saying that party renewal was necessary. On the morning of the ballot, Liberal MPs and the public learned of a reported "backroom deal" brokered by Western Australian party president David Johnston to install federal MP Julie Bishop as state Liberal leader. Under this plan, Barnett and Court would both resign their seats. Barnett would have been offered Bishop's seat of Curtin, the safest federal seat in the Perth area. Bishop would contest the resulting by-election in either Nedlands or Barnett's seat of Cottesloe (both of which were within Curtin's boundaries, and are reckoned as comfortably safe Liberal seats). Court would hand over the party leadership to Bishop once she was safely in state parliament. The plan was announced on the front page of The West Australian in a story by editor Brian Rogers, which reported that Barnett had been "sounded out about the plan". However,