Roger Cook attack’s Donald Trump’s DOGE agenda and highlights four year plan to keep WA and Labor on top

Roger Cook has used a speech to senior public servants to attack America’s DOGE agenda under Donald Trump and insists he wants “frank and fearless” advice. The Premier urged bureaucrats to get behind his four-year vision for WA and argued big government does not equal bad, amid recent criticism of the growing size of his own office. “Eighteen months ago, I had never in my life encountered the word DOGE,” Mr Cook said on Thursday. “But today that word has become synonymous with one of the biggest attacks on the public service in modern history, moves that undermine the role of the public sector, driven by an ideological and misplaced view that government is bad. It’s distressing. “Australians, and specifically Western Australians, value the work of the public sector. “You do the hard yards and, in Australia, the public sector is trusted to a higher degree than corporations, the media and, dare I say it, even politicians. “The challenge any government faces is getting all of us to work in sync.” There was a light-hearted apology to the Senior Executive Service for cabinet reforms that split Health between five ministers, including Meredith Hammat, John Carey and Stephen Dawson who were watching on from the audience. “I know some of you have multiple ministers, sorry about that, and you have to balance the demands of each of your ministers, ” Mr Cook said, to laughter. “My message to my ministers is that the priorities and election commitments we have endorsed at Cabinet take precedence over anything else. “We need to be disciplined, and I also expect you to be disciplined. I expect you to carve out the space to deliver.” Mr Cook showed off a “snazzy little black book” that re-iterated his election priorities of “jobs, health and housing” and added three more: safe and inclusive communities, quality infrastructure, and “protecting and restoring” WA’s environment. But that doesn’t include writing net zero targets into law. “I’m not going to shackle WA to legislation which damages our efforts to help the globe to decarbonise and reduce emissions,” he said. “What I see is our critical minerals, our iron ore and, particularly, the development of green iron through the use of renewable energies huge opportunities for the globe. “That’s where this priority needs to take us to make sure we can still continue to provide the critical minerals and rare earths to the global supply chain so the globe can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reduce human impact on global warming.” The Premier said “alternatives to emergency departments” are the key to ensure all West Australians can access healthcare, while acknowledging that a growing, and ageing, population is stretching the hospital system beyond its current capacity. “While we’re increasing the capacity of our hospitals, we’re also delivering new models of care to give people choice,” Mr Cook said. He finished with an appeal for the hundreds of public servants in the room to “put our shoulders to the wheels together.” Thursday marked 180 days since the State election that returned Labor to power for a third term in emphatic fashion, winning 46 out of the 59 seats in the Legislative Assembly.