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The honeymoon period is well and truly over in WA with the election in the rearview mirror and MPs settling in to the uphill slog to the 2029 election.

With the election settled, the start of 2026 looks very different to 2025 and each party faces unique challenges as we move into the guts of the Parliamentary term.

WA Premier Roger Cook.Credit: Matt Jelonek

The new opposition has deployed a far more effective strategy, which has exposed chinks in Labor’s armour.

Labor

A favoured line of attack is Labor’s spending priorities, i.e, “you won’t spend money on (education, health, housing) but you will spend millions on (Burswood Racetrack, rugby league).”

The Burswood Racetrack and ferry have whipped up white-hot community anger from their respective communities.

The projects will be thorns in Labor’s side for the foreseeable future, but the Cook government is banking on both projects being completed well before the 2029 election, and them being raging successes.

The ferry is scheduled to open in late 2027 while Perth Park, as the racetrack and amphitheatre are now known, will be open for the 2028 Supercars season.

The key issue for the Cook government to overcome this year will be how it breaks the news that Perth Park will no longer cost $217 million as it promised ahead of the March election.

All public commentary to date suggests it is still on track for that price tag, but in today’s inflated construction market, there is absolutely no way it is still going to cost that.

Another issue dogging Labor is health and housing.

Artist impression of the new Royal Perth Hospital S block.

Ambulance ramping hit records above 7000 hours this winter flu season and maintenance issues at its ageing hospitals have created a perfect storm in health.

In response to pressure from the opposition over its management of the health portfolio, the government has announced $64.6 million in extra hospital maintenance and refurbishments to get on top of the ageing infrastructure.