How Roger Cook ‘betrayed’ the United Workers Unions to become WA premier
Depending on who you talk to, Roger Cook’s ascent was either a brutal act of treachery, a basic function of democracy, or a long-overdue comeuppance for the United Workers Union.
As West Australian Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson walked out of the UnionsWA office on Hay Street on Tuesday morning to brief waiting media on what appeared to be her anointment as the state’s next premier, spurned rival Roger Cook and his team began hitting the phones.
With each call, they began to tap into a vein of resentment about the influence of the United Workers Union – colloquially known as the Missos – over the WA Labor Party. Cook himself had been part of the Missos for decades and had long been a beneficiary of their sway: it was their support that saw him promoted to deputy Labor leader within days of his election to parliament in 2008, and it was their support that saw him remain in that job ever since.
But now he had been overlooked by his UWU colleagues as the person to replace Mark McGowan as premier. Instead, they agreed at a meeting inside the UnionsWA office that Sanderson – a former assistant state secretary of the UWU – was the one, despite her comparative lack of experience and lower public profile.
What happened next was, depending on who you talk to, either a brutal act of betrayal, a basic function of democracy or a long-overdue comeuppance for the UWU.
Many at the UWU meeting left there with the understanding Cook would swiftly stand aside to give their candidate a clear run for the premiership. The Left faction dominates the WA Labor party room, and if Sanderson was the only remaining candidate from the Left, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union-aligned MPs that sit alongside the Missos in the Left faction would fall in line. Cook’s withdrawal, however, did not come.
For Labor MPs not aligned with the Missos, the sight of Sanderson addressing the media outside the UnionsWA office was jarring. None of them had yet had their say on who the next premier should be, but Sanderson was seen as though she was acting as the anointed one.
“The optics were bad from the get-go,” says one Labor insider.
“That meant that the other people who were sitting there watching, the AMWU and the Right, were like ‘are these guys for real?’.” One source close to the AMWU camp said the sight of Sanderson speaking to the press came as a “bit of a shock”.
“We think someone was trying to put pressure on us through the media,” they said. “We don‘t submit to pressure from anybody.”
When the AMWU-aligned MPs convened on Tuesday afternoon for what the Missos thought would be a straightforward endorsement of Sanderson as the next premier, it was anything but.
Sources close to the Missos began to suspect something had gone wrong as the AMWU meeting dragged on. Each of the 17 AMWU-aligned MPs had their say over nearly three hours, before voting unanimously for Cook.
Their numbers, combined with those in the party’s Right faction as well as the 10 or 11 Missos who had voted for Cook, meant their combined partyroom numbers outweighed those for Sanderson.
The Missos, some in the Labor Party say, had seen the appointment of the next premier as their birthright.
The shock is deeper given Cook’s reputation as the nice guy of WA Labor, a reliable deputy who didn’t have the killer instinct to do what it takes.
“When you‘re going for the biggest prize in town, when the stakes are as high as they’ll get, people might be tempted to occasionally burn the village down in order to be king,” one source close to the UWU camp said.
“He certainly took the matches and now he’s got the crown.”
Those close to the AMWU deny there was a split in the Left; after all, Cook himself is, or at least was, a Misso. They also note the mess of Tuesday could have been avoided by a meeting of the Left faction in its entirety, rather than hosting a separate meeting of the Missos in the expectation their decision would be binding for the rest of the faction.
While those who backed Cook argue he was a safer pair of hands for the transition from McGowan, and that Sanderson had not served sufficient time as a minister to become premier (she only became a minister after the 2021 election), the drama of Tuesday also has its roots in the often bitter and vicious machinations of factional politics. Some within the WA branch of the party had watched with growing frustration for years as the Missos wielded an outsized influence.
The Missos, under the leadership of secretary Carolyn Smith, had developed a reputation for an aggressive and ruthless approach to politics. They had built what many considered a disproportionate presence inside McGowan’s cabinet and had been steadily building a position in seats that had traditionally belonged to the party’s Right faction. And time after time, the AMWU had fallen into line behind the UWU on key party appointments and decisions.
“There’s been this constant overreaching and refusal to share power, and instead try and gobble up everything for themselves,” one Labor figure says.
It’s believed to be the first time the AMWU has gone against the Missos in years. The great unknown in Labor circles on Wednesday was how they respond.
“They would see it as the ultimate betrayal,” one source said.
“The immediate reaction of Carolyn and her lieutenants would be to blow the whole show up. How they respond internally within the party will be one anyone’s guess, but that will be the real kicker.”
The challenge for Cook – beyond trying to emerge from the enormous shadow of McGowan – will be to maintain the unity of government that was a hallmark of his predecessor’s years.
The factionally unaligned McGowan was never loved by the unions, but his commanding electoral victories and the lack of obvious successors made him untouchable. Cook, in contrast, will be governing in the knowledge that his key backers of the past 30 years – who also represent the single biggest rump of MPs in WA Labor – feel doublecrossed.
“There will be a lot of very battered, bruised people who are feeling betrayed. That’s a huge task for him,” says one source close to the UWU camp. “The task for the party now is, does it slip into an era of recrimination and retribution? Or does it pull together and keep the show as smooth as it can? The electability that was supposed to be the big hallmark of going with Roger is at risk if the show can’t stay together.”
Cook, meanwhile, stood with his new deputy, Rita Saffioti, on Wednesday for his first official press conference since becoming premier-in-waiting, and stressed his government would be one of stability and continuity. “We are ready to lead a united team with the experience and energy to take our state forward,” he said.
Whether that team can remain united after this week’s extraordinary events will be the key early test of Cook’s leadership.
