[2][8][9] In 2004, Herft was elected as the seventh Archbishop of Perth and Metropolitan of the Province of Western Australia and was installed on 11 June 2005, succeeding Peter Carnley.
[2][10] Herft nominated Kay Goldsworthy as Australia's first female Anglican bishop and consecrated her at St George's Cathedral in Perth on 22 May 2008.
[15] On 21 July 2016, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), published an article which stated that "One of the nation's most senior Anglicans, the Archbishop of Perth, Roger Herft, received complaints about a priest involved in a paedophile ring but allegedly failed to formally report him to police."
The article also says that "Archbishop Herft wrote that the complaint "left me in an unenviable position" because "Father Peter had my licence [to be a priest] and if he reoffended I would be held liable as I now had prior knowledge of his alleged behaviour".
[18] On 10 October 2016, Herft wrote a pastoral letter stating that he was standing down as archbishop to "focus my attention on the royal commission's ongoing inquiry into the Diocese of Newcastle".
He stated that he had developed a "much more realistic view" of the priesthood and hoped first-hand accounts from survivors would lead to widespread change within the Anglican Church.
[22] In September 2021, the Episcopal Standards Board of the Anglican Church of Australia conducted a hearing about Herft's fitness to remain in Holy Orders.
The Board found that “[t]here were relevant protocols to guide, indeed impel, [Herft] to act in material respects, and additionally he had the capacity to call on the organs of the Church for resources, advice and support”, and "there was always the straightforward medium of reporting allegations of serious criminal conduct to the police", but that “[Herft] did not do so when the position of authority he held demanded that of him".
The Board determined that Herft had failed to properly address claims made against these priests, that he was unfit to remain in Holy Orders and should be defrocked.