In the years since Mark McGowan led Western Australia through a pandemic with near-unprecedented political dominance, the former premier has moved steadily into the corridors of private influence. His reported appointment to the board of Southern Cross Media Group — the Stokes-controlled entity that now owns Channel 7, The West Australian, and major radio networks — invites the perennial question democracies must ask of their departing powerful: when does a career end, and when does leverage begin? The appointment, pending background checks and shareholder approval, arrives against a documente