West Australians are heading to the polls on 8 March and look set to break the pattern of two terms a piece for Labor and the Liberals that has stood for more than three decades.
The super landslide return of Labor at the last state election and their dominance in the Legislative Assembly of 53/59 seats means there really is no path to government for the opposition. It’s a matter of how much ground the Liberal and National parties are able to claw back, the position that puts them in for 2029, and the implications for Federal Labor in that election set to be called hot on the heels of the WA poll.
While Labor’s 2021 victory was blown out by a series of unparalleled events and factors including the pandemic and global resources dependence – as well as the intense popularity of former Premier Mark McGowan – current Premier Roger Cook is still riding high as WA remains in a strong financial position amidst a national cost of living crisis.
It’s difficult to tell if Roger Cook’s work in his former life with First Nations communities is influencing the WA Government’s position on Blakfulla priorities. The repeal of new Aboriginal Heritage legislation years in the making and only eight weeks into Cook’s premiership did not bode well. Although First Nations community leaders suggested the consultation process was deeply flawed from the start, the backflip was driven by mining, farming and pastoralist heavyweights. And the upshot was reform that was intended to prevent another Juukan Gorge tragedy from ever happening again was thrown out with the bathwater leaving mob who had engaged in the process in good faith traumatised and battle weary. In the 2025 election campaign, the Aboriginal Heritage Act is again under fire with both the National party and Liberals pledging to protect landholder’s interests and conduct a review of the Act, if elected. The Government meanwhile has quietly called for EOI for five positions on the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Committee, so not technically doing nothing on cultural heritage.
The Cook Labor Government has made large scale investments in closing the gap broadly, particularly in employment and self-determined solutions through support for organisations caring for Country under Native Title and the Aboriginal Rangers Program (ARP). Labor has committed $20 million if re-elected for expanding the ARP to deliver jobs, training and community development in regional and remote areas, which has been welcomed by Country Needs People – a national organisation supporting Aboriginal Rangers. It’s policy that’s hard to argue with and results from programs across Australia show Aboriginal empowerment in Aboriginal hands with the right resources does lead to progress on closing the gap. The opposition has pledged bi-partisan support for the ARP, which bodes well for this program at least for when Labor eventually returns to the backbenches at some point well down the road.
Housing continues to be the biggest issue across communities in WA. It’s been repeatedly pointed out that many things flow from safe and secure housing – including improved health, education and employment outcomes and a reduced risk of interaction with the criminal legal system. For First Nations communities who are 8.8 times more likely to experience financial stress and homelessness, housing security is a high priority. Productivity Commission tracking shows one in five First Nations West Australians live in overcrowded housing as opposed to one in 26 non-Indigenous West Australians. Aboriginal Corporation housing advocates in the Kimberley highlight rates of overcrowding three times state and national averages and the compounded issues the overcrowding causes.
In response to this crisis, the Aboriginal Health Council of WA has identified affordable and culturally appropriate housing as a key election priority along with peak bodies who are focused on housing supply. Recognising the shortfalls with housing broadly, Labor launched their reelection campaign in December 2024 with a commitment of $443 million for 1,800 social and affordable houses. In February 2025 they also pledged an additional $19.5 million towards community housing and outreach services across Perth, Mandurah and Bunbury. In response, the Liberals have called the Government out for failing to deliver on past housing promises and in line with the Nationals, offered their own commitments around stamp duty and increased development to make buying a house more affordable. Realistically, this is far out of reach for WAs most marginalised.
The suicide deaths of two First Nations children in WA’s youth detention system have seen pressure on the Cook Government to address the fatal flaws in child justice policy and the operations of facilities. With First Nations children (and adults) disproportionately exposed to and harmed by criminal legal and incarceration systems, the flow-on effects are devastating. In the leadup to the 2025 state election, Social Investment WA’s CEO Sophie Stewart has given the Government an ‘F’ on ‘Justice’, citing Labor’s missed opportunity – given its vast political capital – to make radical changes that are necessary to overhaul a broken system, save lives, and improve community safety.
Some commitments from Labor to invest in prevention-focused programs in the leadup to the election won’t counter years of reactive measures that just don’t work. What’s needed is much more of the $12.5 million pledged to Binar Futures – a youth sports diversionary program – and less of the bail law tightening and trial expedition that nobody (possibly not even the Government) believes will make communities any safer. The conversion of Unit 18 in WA’s Casuarina maximum security adult prison to hold youth detainees has been widely condemned. However the Government’s response to build a new ‘therapeutic’ facility adjacent to the state’s only youth detention centre at Banksia Hill seems a lot like doing the same thing and expecting a different result. While earlier this year the WA Liberals pledged to close Unit 18 in 100 days, they failed to say how this would be done or where the children would go. Meanwhile, the new centre at Banksia Hill won’t be completed before 2026 at the earliest.
If only the billions that have been poured into the prison industrial complex by the state could be reinvested in on Country programs and the alternative and diversionary measures that First Nations communities, services and advocacy bodies, and even the police and corrections have proposed. Across the political spectrum, candidates and incumbents contesting the 2025 WA state election are calling for a different approach to justice, including and specifically First Nations justice, that will change the narrative for communities. It remains to be seen to what extent WA Labor will listen and act.
A wise person once said,
Bravery is making the calculation that political capital, for whatever that is worth, is there to make change, to lead Australia towards something better.
When we head to the polls in any election, we should ambitiously engage with the democratic process as our right and as a privilege. We must reject apathy and deny despair at the dysfunction of the system. And we must continue to hold our elected governments to account so that they prioritise the infamous ‘fair go’ for all Australians above the electoral cycle and holding onto power. This is our responsibility.
See here for the ABC’s breakdown of all WA election promises in detail.
