OPINION: Opposition must start laying out policies that catch voters’ imaginations.
Almost daily for the past month, the Cook government has been rolling out big spending commitments before the state budget is handed down on May 7.
They’re called pre-budget announcements, and apart from being a political weapon completely under the control of the party in power, these selective proclamations can make life difficult for the opposition.
Take, for instance, the so-called “seven cities” pledge made by Premier Roger Cook on April 28, benefitting Bunbury, Kalgoorlie, Karratha, Port Hedland, Broome, Geraldton and Albany.
It was more slogan than substance, but the government knows full well the only people poring over the promises in detail were journalists and politicians from the Nationals and Liberals.
Dressed up as the premier’s regional “vision” for a Chamber of Minerals and Energy breakfast event, was a pre-budget front page newspaper story about $419 million to build 500 extra houses for regional government workers.
It’s government media management 101, and most of the time the media and the government jump into bed together under that arrangement.
But when the syrupy set-piece is out of the way and the policy is stripped back, it’s sometimes necessary to revert to cynicism.
The seven cities named by the premier (never mind that Broome and Port Hedland are actually towns) have been in desperate need of more government regional officer housing (GROH) for many years.
In November 2010, the state had 5,254 GROH properties.
In November 2025, that number was 5,519.
Across 15 years, GROH accommodation for police officers and other public servants, had only grown by 265 properties while both sides of politics have claimed to be keeping on top of the problem.
Just like Mr Cook’s seven cities vision, was the Barnett government’s royalties for regions “400 program”.
“The 400 program takes pressure off some of the regional towns that are struggling with housing affordability by making sure that the government does its bit in providing houses for its employees,” the then Housing Minister Bill Marmion said in 2010.
Fast forward to what Mr Cook told the CME event last month.
“What we do in the WA government, if we need to locate a teacher in a particular town and we don’t have GROH housing, we buy some of that town’s housing stock or we take out a long-term lease,” the premier said.
“We’re essentially cannibalising local private markets for housing, so this is going to be a significant relief for these local housing markets.”
Different decade, different governments, same conclusion.
It’s both true, and odd, that five years after talking up its 400 extra houses plan, the Barnett government decided to start selling off GROH stock.
Anyway, Mr Cook has promised 500 homes as part of his vision to “unlock the next wave of regional economic development and deliver quality infrastructure and services around the state”.
Even a cynic’s head hurts when considering how the current government can arrive at the same position as the old government and then start telling voters they have a vision.
For the Liberals and Nationals, the seven cities slogan might be easy to shoot down, but it can’t oppose the idea of putting more GROH accommodation in the regions.
The bigger problem for the opposition will come closer to the 2029 election, when the government will remind voters of everything it has been able to build, or has budgeted to build, in housing, health, roads and rail.
Between now and then the opposition must at least generate policies to capture people’s imagination.
If it can’t say it did, it will have to convince voters it can.
WA Labor will be asking for an historic fourth term at the next election, and unless the electorate simply decides it’s time for a change, or an unforeseen scandal plays out before then, there’s nothing to suggest the party won’t achieve that aim.
“Seven cities is a long-term plan,” said Mr Cook in his speech to the CME last month.
“It’s a long-term mission.”
Whether those words turn out to be hollow or not, Labor is at least laying the bedrock of its next election fight, which is why the opposition should be starting to take the tough road back to power by doing the same.
You can’t criticise a vision without offering one.
