John Carey has lived in the inner city for nearly 20 years. He first became active in his local community when he established Western Australia’s first town team, the Beaufort Street Network. This organisation aimed to revitalise and transform the precinct. John also co-founded the highly successful Beaufort Street Festival.

John Carey has previously worked in media and advocacy successfully campaigning with a coalition of organisations for the creation of the Great Kimberley Marine Park.

John was elected to the City of Vincent Council in 2011, and he successfully ran for Mayor of City of Vincent in 2013 (re-elected 2015).

As Mayor, John drove a major program of reform achieving new transparency and accountability standards for local government including; the establishment of online registers, cutting wasteful spending and banning councillors’ travel. John also drove a new focus on town centre renewal, cutting red tape for small business and major investment in greening programs and cycling and pedestrian infrastructure across local neighbourhoods.

During his tenure in 2016, the City of Vincent was independently rated first among 25 councils, receiving an overall performance score of 82 out of 100, compared to 16th out of 18 councils in 2010. The Catalyse Community Scorecard surveys households across a local government area, and found the City of Vincent ranked highest in 18 out of 40 benchmarks, including place to live, governing organisation, and the city's leadership within the community.

Elected as the State Member for Perth in March 2017, John was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to the Premier, Mark McGowan, and later as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Transport and Planning, where he assisted in driving planning reform, with a particular focus on cutting red tape for small business and households.

In his first year as a Member of Parliament, John hosted the Perth City Summit with 350 attendees to develop strategies and projects to drive positive change in the city. He has worked hard to implement many of the Summit’s recommendations, including securing a new university campus in the city as part of the $1.6 billion Perth City Deal, major new cycling infrastructure and working to abolish alfresco fees for city businesses.

Following the return of the McGowan State Government in March 2021, John was appointed the Minister for Housing and Local Government.