Time’s running out for Roger Cook to tell us what he stands for

American entrepreneur Michael Altshuler said: “The bad news is, time flies. But the good news is, you’re the pilot.”

This quote should be rattling around WA Premier Roger Cook’s head this week as he kicks off the last full parliamentary year before the 2025 election.

WA Premier Roger Cook has less than 15 months to convince the public what he stands for.Credit: WAtoday

After former premier Mark McGowan pulled the ejector cable in May last year, resulting in Cook’s rapid ascension into the state’s top gig, he has struggled to emerge from his predecessor’s shadow and time is running out to do so.

The next 15 months are Cook’s opportunity to become Maverick, stamping his authority on his party, the parliament and the state.

Cook signalled from the get-go what he didn’t stand for. He was not going to replicate McGowan’s brash and brutal style politics. He would be more consultative and empathetic. And this has been demonstrated by a cooling-down of rhetoric over WA’s youth detention problems.

But to avoid unnecessary political turbulence from a fickle WA public, he needs to use this time to tell the electorate what he does stand for – beyond being an affable bloke, or “Kwinana dad”.

Labor will have some shiny new things to lean against when it pitches to voters later this year, primarily Metronet.

Despite their ballooned price tags, the new Bayswater Junction, Yanchep extension and Morley to Ellenbrook line will provide good ribbon-cutting picture fodder and evoke Labor’s past glories (see: Mandurah line.)

Cook’s problem here is that, like the Mandurah line always being associated with former Transport Minister Alannah MacTiernan, these Metronet projects will be current Transport Minister Rita Saffioti’s great triumph.

Likewise with some of Labor’s other major legislative reforms this term, such as abortion laws, the native forest logging ban, planning and housing policies and the upcoming gun reforms – to the public, rightly or wrongly, Cook appears to have been on the periphery.

This was evident in Cook’s first statement to parliament on Tuesday, which covered off most of the major policy and legislative agenda of the McGowan government.

One area Cook probably can claim credit for is the state’s efforts to decarbonise, as well as its changes to the Environmental Protection Authority to remove “green tape” for industrial and renewable projects.

“This year we will overhaul our environmental assessment regime,” he said.

“The intention of these reforms is simply to streamline approvals while ensuring strong environmental protections.”

He also flagged that finally WA would have a legislated emissions target with the introduction of its Climate Change Bill later this year.

But his environmental credentials may not be as big a strength as he hopes, as illustrated by the large rally protesting the changes to the EPA, happening right outside parliament as he began his speech.

One of Cook’s biggest strengths is the weakness of the opposition.

To carry on the fighter jet metaphor, he’s piloting an F-35 while the opposition are still scratching their heads over how birds can fly, so unless something catastrophic happens before March Cook will likely lead his party back into power for a historic third term.

But I bet he’d love to do it by losing as few seats as possible.

With dictatorship-level control of both houses of parliament, he needs to clearly articulate what he wants to do with this opportunity he had secretly hoped for his entire political career – or risk apathy and drift from voters.

Time to engage the thrusters.

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