[1] Jack was awarded an Order of Australia medal in 2001 for his service to the welfare of veterans and their families and his assistance to the Timorese people through the 2/2nd Commando Association.

[1][5] For two years, he also ran an event, party and wedding coordination business called Bailey and Carey.

[10] In 2013, he was elected mayor with 87.12% of the vote,[11] succeeding Alannah MacTiernan, who had resigned as she had won the federal seat of Perth.

[12] As Mayor of Vincent, Carey advocated for greater transparency and accountability in local government, writing and releasing a public discussion paper "Raising the Bar", and introduced a series of measures to enhance public reporting at the City of Vincent, including an online gifts register and WA's first contact with developers register.

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.

[5][3][26] In August 2017, Carey hosted the Perth City Summit, which over 350 residents, business operators and property owners attended.

The proposed changes include making local government elections have preferential voting like at state and federal elections, as opposed to the currently used method of first-past-the-post voting; making larger local governments have directly elected mayors or presidents, as opposed to them being elected by councillors; a mandatory caretaker period before elections; livestreaming of council meetings online and posting of recordings; the formation of a local government inspector to investigate and fix dysfunctional councils in an attempt to avoid the need for expensive enquiries; further define the roles and responsibilities of councillors and local government CEOs; and new rules for the number of councillors for each local government.

[35][36] As Lands Minister, Carey was responsible for the passage of the Wittenoom Closure Bill, which passed in March 2022.

The town had been declared a contaminated site due to asbestos mining, but several people still lived there and visited there.

[39][40] In the upcoming Cook ministry, due to be sworn in on 8 June 2023 due to the replacement of Mark McGowan as premier with Roger Cook, Carey will take over from Rita Saffioti as the minister for planning, while relinquishing the role of minister for local government, which will go to cabinet newcomer David Michael.

[41][42] Carey is affiliated with the United Workers Union and is part of the Labor Left faction.