WA’s premier on the housing crisis, stamp duty … and cash-for-access dinners
In his first year in the state’s top job, there have been plenty of political problems dumped on Roger Cook’s desk.
From the cost of living, to dying forests, to the state’s housing crisis, whatever honeymoon period Cook had after the surprise resignation of his predecessor Mark McGowan was short-lived.
WA Premier Roger Cook.Credit: Ross Swanborough
Ahead of his anniversary as premier, WAtoday grilled Cook on the hot-button issues facing his government.
Closeness to business
A legacy issue that continues to plague the Labor government is its closeness to the state’s influential business community.
Labor charges professionals a pretty penny to rub shoulders with Cook at fundraising events run by its cash-for-access outfit the Labor Business Roundtable.
Cook tells WAtoday he has featured at “about a dozen” of these events since becoming premier but says there are no issues with providing behind-closed-doors access to people reliant on government decisions.
“It’s not a transactional approach, it’s not ‘pay your money at the door, get your issue resolved,’” he says.
“These people want to have long-term relationships with both sides of parliament. It’s not just us …for better or for worse, our political system provides for those opportunities.
“They may believe that through that process, that they might get a better consideration. They don’t.”
Cook says any government decision must bear public scrutiny.
“It has to be able to be justified in terms of the advice you get from the agencies, and has to be for the benefit of people in Western Australia,” he says.
Cook also denies that his government is only accessible to those who can afford it – pointing out many of his MPs come from environmental and social justice backgrounds.
“For instance, [retiring Thornlie MP] Chris Tallentire is a former head of the Conservation Council; we’ve just pre-selected Daniel Morrison [in his place], who’s the head of an Aboriginal drug and alcohol rehabilitation group,” he says.
“That’s one of the strengths of our party, it is that we do draw upon those communities and so we can continue to have a decent relationship with them in government.”
On housing
Housing remains the most pressing, multi-faceted issue facing the Cook government as rents and house prices have been blown sky-high by the state’s extraordinary population growth and its inability to build houses at pace.
The other side of the seesaw is the state’s seemingly never-ending urban sprawl exacerbated by the state’s love of the four-by-two – the easiest housing product to knock up quickly.
Cook is surprisingly candid on this topic, taking aim at urban sprawl but conceding the traditional large bungalow is not going anywhere.
“Part of my frustration at the moment is that while we’re good at building four-by-twos on flat pieces of dirt in the outer suburbs of Perth or new suburbs, we’re not good at multi-dwelling multi-storey housing,” he says.
“It frustrates me that the housing construction industry hasn’t adapted to the needs of the state in terms of more housing choices.
“It’s just not what they geared up for and it’s higher risk so we have to work with them to find ways that we can make that happen.”
On stamp duty for downsizers
As Planning and Housing Minister John Carey often says, the state government has pulled many levers in its efforts to boost housing supply in the state, including offering incentives to AirBnB and vacant property owners to put their houses on the market (though Airbnb is not convinced this will do much).
But one thing Cook says his government won’t do is offer further stamp duty breaks for people wanting to downsize their homes to smaller dwellings or apartments.
“They shouldn’t need financial incentives in order to pursue those housing options; you can already buy a place off the plan, stamp duty-free,” he says.
On the cost of living
The WA government’s favourite weapon in its arsenal to combat cost-of-living impacts has been handing out free money, in the form of $400 electricity credits and the $150-$250 school assistance payment.
Cook understands the criticism of these non-means-tested payments, which end up in the pockets of some of the state’s most wealthy as well as the poorest, but said people right across the economy were doing it tough.
When asked why the state hadn’t adopted more structural cost-of-living policies, such as permanently reducing government fees and charges, Cook reveals the government has an eye to the future.
“You don’t want to cook in big expenses, particularly with an economy with a revenue base which is so subject to fluctuations with commodity cycles,” he says.
On Basil
Even before his preselection as the Liberal candidate for Churchlands, Perth Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas had injected a fire into WA’s political discourse that the state has not seen for years.
When asked whether Zempilas’ political aspirations have impacted the government’s relationship with the City of Perth, Cook chooses his words carefully.
“I can’t speak for Basil, I can only speak for the state government; and I’d say that we’ll work with any local government on these issues, regardless of the background or politics or some of the games that get played in the media,” he says.
“All this other sideshow I think I’ll leave to other people.”
On diversifying the economy
One of Cook’s biggest ambitions as premier is to remove the state’s over-reliance on the resources industry.
He says areas such as tourism, defence and space industries are growing but concedes it may not seem like it because of the size of the iron ore sector.
“You see that stuff expanding, and it’s growing, and it will be a significant benefit for the economy …iron ore is just so bloody big … just such a behemoth in terms of its contribution to the economy.
“So while we’re doing really well in other sectors, it’s been overshadowed by just the sheer scale of that industry.”
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