Jessica Page’s Christmas report card: How State politicians fared in election year of highs and lows

There were three elections in 2025, Cabinet and leadership shuffles and new MPs initiated. But crises in health, housing and family budgets still dominate the debate in WA and should keep our political class up at night. Santa won’t deliver a lump of coal — that’s being phased out — but the New Year will deliver a dose of political reality. Voters gave their verdict in March and handed Labor another four years in power. An historic third term and a bigger-than-expecting winning margin gives Roger Cook high marks, but there are storms ahead. Hospitals on life support and record rates of domestic violence must be reckoned with, putting new Ministers firmly in the hot seat. Here’s my assessment of the past year in State politics. Roger Cook — A He won it fair and square and deserves credit for it — 2025 was Roger Cook’s coming of age. The Premier set the election pace and though the campaign wasn’t without fault (the debate was hard to watch back), Mr Cook’s political instincts proved true. The public verdict is the one that matters. Voters gave him an A-plus. I’ve pegged it back to a solid A since polling day. His “knob” remark about JD Vance wasn’t rehearsed, but finally showed some personality and the election result meant the once-loyal deputy was finally able to step out of his predecessor’s shadow. Mr Cook has used that to set his own agenda post-election, reshaping Cabinet and the State bureaucracy. This year has been about laying the groundwork for what’s ahead and putting out spot fires. But where there’s smoke, there is still fire, and 2026 needs to be a year of delivery on health, housing and renewable energy. Basil Zempilas — B He came within a whisker of not getting elected at all, but the media personality turned mayor turned wannabe Premier has successfully dialled up the pressure on the Government. Mr Zempilas was forced to tread a fine line pre-election, with his mere presence on the campaign trail undermining Libby Mettam’s leadership. Post-election he’s proved he is a formidable sparring partner. He’s making the Government work harder, scored points on Labor’s health backflip and has entrenched a level of public disdain for the Burswood “race track” that will be hard to overcome. But he’s yet to prove the new-look Opposition has the policy substance to match its more combative style. Libby Mettam — C+ Libby Mettam sacrificed herself for the team. Have any of them thanked her for it? Her personal election campaign was better than many predicted, myself included. But she was shackled by a few below-par candidates, a lack of policy detail, and a dire shortage of political grunt. She lost with dignity and has proved to be a team player, with the ability to hold Labor to account on health. The health debate got personal and heated on the campaign trail, and in Parliament. Labor has, at times, taken offence. It should. After all, it’s life and death. Shane Love — B- He had to hand main Opposition party status back to the Liberals, but Shane Love deserves a lot of credit for increasing the Nationals WA numbers in the Legislative Assembly. The Nats made the most of a ripple of discontent in much of regional WA. But at times it left the Opposition parties fighting each other instead of the Government. A Coalition deal should be his legacy. Mr Love also galvanised public anger over polling debacles on election day, and ensured some level of accountability for that chaos. Rita Saffioti — B Love her or loathe her, she gets things done. The deputy was a constant presence during the election campaign, boosting the visibility of other Labor candidates. Rita Saffioti is the Government’s hardest worker and loudest talker. That straight shooting is her biggest strength and weakness. She delivered Metronet, connecting the Labor brand to every suburb. Well, except the western suburbs. The budget blowouts were forgiven by voters. But there’s a big catch. The priority granted to Metronet ahead of other pressing needs has frustrated frontbench colleagues, and is coming home to roost in health and housing. And as Treasurer, Ms Saffioti has become the punching bag blamed for every dollar that is spent (or not spent) on race-tracks, rugby teams and convention centre upgrades. She rightly wanted her share of credit for the decisions, so she’ll cop the blame for them too. Amber-Jade Sanderson – B- The leadership race has been called off for now. Health was the weak link of Labor’s election campaign and Amber-Jade Sanderson couldn’t bandaid over that. Running away from questions on the campaign trail was a low point. But the move out of Health has revived her and reminded everyone why she is a future leadership contender. She’s a good negotiator, and on top of the policy detail. Not much is done yet though. Tying the State’s energy transition to jobs and local manufacturing is smart politics that will put her front and centre of Roger Cook’s plan for WA. But the public — and industry — needs to be convinced the pathway to renewables is both realistic and affordable. Show us the plan in 2026. It’s overdue. John Carey – A- Labor’s attack dog. He says he doesn’t like the art of politics, but he’s very good at it. John Carey has just scraped ahead of the targets he set on social housing, while the Liberals didn’t bother setting one. WA is behind on national housing targets, but trending better. Overall, on housing, it’s a work in progress but there has been progress. The cabinet reshuffle that divided Health across multiple ministers has left Mr Carey with both the responsibility and the credit for new hospital promises. The initial denial of the state of disrepair was a bad mistake, but he took the wheel and came up with the political fix: a $50 million maintenance blitz and a shiny new $1.5 billion plan to buy a hospital, build a hospital and renovate a hospital. Whether it works — in time — will prove whether he’s a leadership contender too, which has become the biggest buzz of 2025 in Labor’s inner-circles. Meredith Hammat – D It’s probably not fair that John Carey is getting the credit for future plans while Meredith Hammat cops the blame for the here and now. But that’s the gig. Fresh eyes and fresh ideas were the theory when a first-time minister was handed the poisoned chalice, but the former union leader’s deflection during three months of record ambulance ramping means I can’t give Health a pass. Attacking it from every angle was a hollow excuse that didn’t last. Extra funding was eventually found, so they hadn’t been attacking every angle before? The metrics matter. Planning is apparently underway for next winter. Hopefully there are signs of improvement by then. A failure to keep up with the black market and introduce laws police need to stop Perth’s tobacco/vape wars was another missed opportunity. The passage of surrogacy laws after a fraught, but mostly fair, debate was a heartfelt win after years of delays — but not enough to make up for the rest. Stephen Dawson – B A steady hand in charge of an Upper House that won’t be controlled so easily, but Stephen Dawson — Minister for Regional Development and Science and Innovation — should be given a higher profile. Jackie Jarvis – C The Agriculture Minister hardly put up a fight to keep WA’s live sheep trade, but has been prepared to make the unpopular call on fish. Whether it’s the right call remains to be seen. Paul Papalia – C- The strong-arm style was arguably necessary to get gun laws through and restore calm to youth justice last year, but the fine print wasn’t finished. The timeline for the “temporary” unit 18 keeps getting longer, while the narrative of Labor’s gun crackdown had to be re-written. The Minister for Emergency Services, Corrective Services, Defence Industries, Veterans, Racing and Gaming gets points for AUKUS when it arrives. Tony Buti – B+ John Quigley is a tough act to follow as attorney-general, and Tony Buti is more subtle — but consistent. A redress scheme for WA’s stolen generation was a highlight, parole laws and a post and boast crackdown are incoming and while the Government’s reckoning on institutional child abuse has not gone far enough — it has edged closer to the necessary, humane mark. But he needs to get moving on a Judicial Commission and dodgy builders. Simone McGurk – C Hard to tell whether she deserves blame or credit for Labor clinging onto the seat of Fremantle. Probably both. The Aged Care and Women’s Minister gets credit for being the first one to pull no punches on aged care and call the Commonwealth out for being stingy on home care packages. She’s held the line on industrial relations, for better or worse. Don Punch – D What a shitshow, literally. The fatbergs exposed Perth’s ageing sewerage network and too many questions about under-done maintenance were left unanswered by the Water Minister. A “design issue” putting Kwinana’s desalination plant too close to the dredging zone for Westport resulted in another kind of leak, and a potential Budget blowout that also hasn’t been plugged. In Parliament, he’s too easily ignored and unnoticed. And Minister for Climate Resilience — what does that even mean? That’s the Minister for Decarbonisaton’s patch. There’s speculation a cabinet reshuffle might be triggered in the first half of next year and he is probably the Minister who misses out, or jumps before he is pushed. Reece Whitby – B- Pre-election, the energy and environment portfolios were an uncomfortable match-up that left a climate bill off Parliament’s agenda. Since then, Rita Saffioti has taken the glory, and the flack, for most things related to tourism. But Mr Whitby, now Police and Tourism Minister, has weaponised new gun laws to wedge the Opposition in Parliament, improved the messaging on road safety and made E-rideables a policy issue. David Michael — C Highly rated in Labor and parliamentary circles, but the public is yet to see much of David Michael despite his hefty portfolios of Finance, Mines and Electoral Affairs. A quiet achiever, and a stickler for the rules in and out of Parliament. Sabine Winton — C A Minister for Preventative Health sounds great. The problem isn’t that she’s a smoker, the problem is she needs a dedicated budget to actually prevent illness. The Government has previously committed to reaching 5 per cent of health spending on prevention, but isn’t there yet. A snap review of childcare safety was prompted by headlines, free kindy is being rolled out, but a review for better school inclusion was initiated by the Education Minister’s predecessor. Follow-through is needed on that front. Lots of potential for a big 2026. Hannah Beazley – C It’s time to drag local government reform out of the too-hard basket, please. Hannah Beazley was prepared to step in when Nedlands, Port Hedland and Coolgardie needed to be sent to the naughty corner. Now the City of Perth is on the brink of anarchy again. A local government inspector isn’t enough to fix it. Jessica Stojkovski – C- The dancing TikTok video celebrating funding for women’s refuges was a bad judgement call, but isn’t the primary reason for this mark. Though Ms Stojkovski has embraced the tough child protection and domestic violence portfolios with empathy, she has so far only been able to tinker around the edges of daily reality for the State’s most vulnerable cohorts. Coercive control laws were promised in 2023. Advocates have agreed with the time the Government is taking to get it right, but the explanation that public awareness needed to improve first has come and gone. Now we’re being told the laws have failed to result in any convictions interstate. So does the promise still stand? The time is nigh in 2026. Matthew Swinbourn — C A new Exmouth Gulf marine park was a highlight, while negotiations over Federal Labor’s environmental overhaul were divided between WA’s Environment Minister and the Premier and managed to prevent a train wreck for industry. But Matthew Swinbourn’s insistence that global climate action is the answer to save the Ningaloo Reef from coral bleaching doesn’t wash with WA’s own emission rates. It’s a vexed issue inside a Labor government that is trying to balance its industry-friendly reputation with its own left-wing flank.