Introduction by Croakey: The re-elected Western Australia Labor Government has a long to-do list, according to the two articles below.
The list includes (but is no means limited to) establishing a state climate change bill, culturally safe accommodation for pregnant Aboriginal women travelling for care from remote and regional areas, and expanding the state’s Rent Relief Program.
The Government is also being urged to enact commitments made during the election campaign, including to expand the breakfast program in more WA schools and invest five percent of health system spending in prevention by 2029.
In the first article below, Alison Barrett reports on some of the key health priorities for the new Government.
The second article by Dr Richard Yin, retired GP and former Board member of Doctors for the Environment Australia (DEA), and Dr Emma-Leigh Synnott, Chair for the WA branch of DEA, argue the new Government has an opportunity to reset the agenda on climate and the environment.
Calls to action
Alison Barrett writes:
The re-elected Western Australian Labor Government is being urged to demonstrate leadership on policies and actions that improve the health and wellbeing of future generations, including partnering with Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services to improve culturally safe child development services.
Vicki O’Donnell, Chair of the Aboriginal Health Council of Western Australia (AHCWA), told Croakey one of their priorities is to work with the new WA Government to “make inroads into supporting the safety of mothers and babies through the provision of culturally safe short-stay accommodation for pregnant women who need to travel to regional and metropolitan centres to give birth”.
AHCWA is also calling on the government to work with the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services sector to achieve key priority reforms of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap.
According to health and environment advocates, the re-election of Premier Roger Cook and the Labor Government on the weekend is not a mandate for business as usual.
Prior to the election, the Public Health Association of Australia WA branch released its election scorecard, revealing that the Labor Party supported only two of the six priority public health areas: maintaining restrictions on electronic gaming machines and a last-minute commitment to investing five percent of health system spending in prevention by 2029.
The swing towards pro-climate independents and the WA Greens – which has secured three seats, with a fourth likely, in the Upper House – also indicates strong support for climate action.
The WA Greens told ABC that strengthening the government’s climate change legislation will be a top priority.
“Re-election is not just a rubber stamp of approval for the status quo,” said Clare Beaton-Wells, from Foundations for Tomorrow, an Australian youth-driven, non-profit organisation. “With it comes responsibilities – ones that must not be taken for granted.”
Beaton-Wells told Croakey that WA Labor must demonstrate “political leadership that looks out for the health and wellbeing of current and future generations”. This includes shifting to policies and models that support healthy ecosystems, populations and environments, now and into the future.
“WA now has the opportunity to be a leader in strong environmental governance,” Beaton-Wells said.
Amie Furlong, also from Foundations for Tomorrow, echoed these sentiments, calling on leadership to care for the environment, land, animals and water which play a big part in people’s wellbeing and sense of belonging, purpose and identity.
“Let’s imagine a state that uses its resources to support more conservation industries, businesses and actively invests in well-paid, high-quality and locally enabled research, jobs and education with and for the environment, not against it,” Furlong said.
Social determinants
The Western Australia Council of Social Services (WACOSS) is calling on WA Labor to provide more targeted cost-of-living relief, including by expanding the Rent Relief Program and transport concessions to all concession card holders.
WACOSS told Croakey, “we would also like to see the Cook Government take action on the second tranche of rent reform and include minimum standards and a form of rent stabilisation”.
“In the middle of a housing crisis, it is vital we pull every lever to make sure families have access to safe, secure and healthy homes,” WACOSS said.
Appropriate funding to the community services sector so that people can access services when and where they need them is also a priority.
“The community sector often acts as a safety net, stopping people falling between the gaps or into financial or personal crisis,” WACOSS said.
“Unprecedented need for community sector supports – across many socio-economic layers of our community – coupled with long-term underfunding is putting unprecedented pressure on sector resources and leaving many Western Australians without the services and supports they need to thrive.”
WACOSS told Croakey the organisation is “proud to have achieved” several “wins” as part of its Make WA Fair campaign in the lead-up to the election, including the expansion of the breakfast program in more WA schools and increased funding for financial counselling services.
Other “wins” include:
- Expansion of Hardship Utility Grant Scheme (HUGS) eligibility to social housing tenants for water, a scheme which assists utility customers who are in financial hardship and unable to pay their bills
- Expansion and uplift of the Patient Assisted Travel Scheme (PATS)
- Cheaper public transport for University and TAFE students with the introduction of one-zone fares
- Create and resource an Office of Early Childhood
- Reduce ‘fragmented care’ for children in their preschool years – free full-time kindergarten
WACOSS efforts now will be focused on ensuring the election commitments, particularly those arising from the Make WA Fair campaign, are implemented in a way that meets community need, it said.
Cultural safety
O’Donnell told Croakey that AHCWA “look forward to partnering with the new WA Government to sustain and build the capacity of our Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services through adequate funding and resources” to support them provide culturally secure, Aboriginal-led services.
For example, “ACCHSs are well placed to provide initial developmental screening for Aboriginal children, a critical component of improving Aboriginal people’s health and wellbeing over the long term,” she said.
They also hope to secure funding to implement an Aboriginal Environmental Health Model of Care and associated community capacity building for maintenance of remote housing and other infrastructure.
“In Western Australia, remoteness, limited access to services, overcrowding, inadequate housing and home-health hardware, as well as lack of access to tradespeople and repairs, and the cost of infrastructure maintenance mean rates of preventable diseases linked to poor living conditions are higher among Aboriginal people,” she said.
O’Donnell told Croakey that AHCWA’s 2025-26 Budget Submission is due for release in coming weeks and will highlight other priorities for the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Sector, including initiatives to improve oral health, clinical infrastructure and resourcing to improve the patient journey for Aboriginal people travelling from regional and remote areas.
More calls to action
Croakey’s WA pre-election coverage indicates a big to-do list, with other calls to action for the new WA Labor Government – many of which are also relevant for the upcoming federal election – including:
- Addressing institutionalised racism experienced by Aboriginal children in classrooms and health services
- Support and fund the infrastructure and system requirements for enabling local, grassroots Aboriginal people’s community involvement in decision-making regarding the educational, health and social wellbeing needs of Aboriginal children across sectors.
- Implement restrictions on advertising unhealthy food and drinks on State-owned assets
- Prioritise health, wellbeing and equity in all climate action, and commit to short- and medium-term actions and targets along a definite pathway to net zero emissions by 2050
- Raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility to 14 years old
Reset the agenda
Richard Yin and Emma-Leigh Synnott write:
The result of the WA election presents an opportunity for the re-elected Labor government, under Premier Roger Cook, to reset the agenda on climate and the environment.
The swing toward independents and the Greens, provides clear evidence for climate support in the public and a mandate to take stronger action on climate change and more ambition in the speed of transitioning away from fossil fuels to a nature positive and renewable future.
We call on the WA Government to reset the climate agenda by passing a Climate Change bill – with an independent climate expert body embedded within to provide advice and accountability – that would set interim targets aligned to the state doing its fair share in keeping global temperatures to under 1.5 C.
As we previously reported at Croakey, we also urge the re-elected Government to set an ambitious Renewable Energy target for the whole of the state, ban fracking across the whole of the state, and protect nature and biodiversity by committing to the Nature Positive agenda.
It is important that sustainability is prioritised in the health sector – elevating the position of the Sustainable Development Unit within the architecture of the WA Health Department will improve visibility and support cross-portfolio integration.
Connecting climate change and health means that we must prepare the community, the workforce, and our health system for cascading and escalating impacts and the health system must do its part to decarbonise and reduce harm.
With the Climate and Health WA Inquiry now five years on, there needs to be transparency and accountability as to what has been achieved in regards the recommendations.
There also needs to be better articulation of the Sustainable Development Unit in the Department of Health, including a commitment to dedicated funding and resourcing, and public reporting on progress.
Swing to the Greens
While it has been a Labor landslide, with the Liberal Opposition failing to win as many seats as they were expecting, the election has also seen a massive swing to the Greens and strong polling for climate-aligned independents.
At the time of writing, based on ABC reporting, the current swing to the Greens in the Upper House is four percent, which has secured them three seats, with a potential fourth. If this happens, it will mean that the party will have in its own right, the balance of power in the Upper House.
In the Fremantle electorate, the result is still far from clear with the independent Kate Hulett achieving a 28 percent swing away from veteran Labor MP Simone McGurk. Hulett’s campaigning on climate and the environment and with door-knocking campaigns by advocacy groups Frack Free WA and Environs Kimberley, and the issue of Labor’s lack-lustre engagement on climate was acknowledged by McGurk.
In the Liberal heartland of Cottesloe, independent Dr Rachel Horncastle running partly on a climate platform, secured 29 percent of primary votes. There was similar but not as marked support for other independents.
Premier Cook has now secured a mandate for his leadership since taking over after the sudden resignation of previous Premier Mark McGowan in 2023.
One of his first acts has been to appoint Daniel Smith who holds strong sustainability credentials as his new chief of staff.
Prevention matters
During the campaign, there was a lot of discussion on health with bold promises that each party would “fix the system”, mostly by “increasing hospital beds”.
Although there is indeed dire near for a real commitment to long-term and meaningful bed increases in WA, much of the discussions appeared to be nothing more than the normal empty ‘quick fix’ promises and rhetoric we see as a result of short-term election cycles.
Instead, we urge the WA Government to look broader. Prioritise prevention and enact the commitment made during the election campaign that by 2029, five percent of state health expenditure will be dedicated to preventive health and other public health outcomes.
Let’s try to keep people out of hospital – there needs to be follow through in regard to funding preventative health.
Also, meaningful cross-government (and cross portfolio) commitment to improving what underpins good health – social equity, safe and sustainable environments, and connected and resilient communities is important.
In essence, we need a health in all policies approach and the exploration of a wellbeing economy.
Health equity
We need the State health system to better articulate, and integrate with, support, and advocate for funding and focus on primary care and community health, including Aboriginal Community Controlled organisations, aged care, and NDIS support services.
This includes improving Medicare, boosting and supporting the GP workforce, integrating data and results systems, and ensuring we have funding and adequate access to health and care in rural and remote communities.
More importantly, beds are useless without an appropriately skilled (and appropriately paid and supported) workforce, and (importantly), somewhere for people to go when they are ready to leave hospital.
The State Government needs to focus on funding, supporting, and working with the Federal Government to ensure there is smooth transition of people with complex health (physical and mental), age, and disability needs back into the community – and that they are adequately supported when there so they stay well.
This work MUST be done in just and participatory ways, which means including the voices of those with lived experience in a full co-design and co-governed processes of what would make meaningful differences in their lives.
See Croakey’s archive of articles on the WA election and health
