WA State Budget 2025-26: a review and commentary

For their second WA budget as Premier and Treasurer, Roger Cook and Rita Saffioti have delivered a budget plan that capitalises on the continued strength and resilience of the WA economy. The budget is intended to target employment and skills growth, improvements in health care, together with measures to mitigate the state’s escalating housing affordability crisis.

Among the key pillars for this year’s announcements were commitments of $38bn over the forward estimates towards transport, physical infrastructure and renewable energy initiatives, economic diversification, and support for the WA government’s ‘Made in WA’ strategy.

This year’s budget is more or less par for the economic situation we’re in. The Treasurer has to balance the need to allocate resources towards domestic imperatives – especially the state’s ongoing housing crisis – with a desire for some protections against global uncertainties and geopolitical tensions.

If anything, the budget is a bit short on measures to alleviate cost-of-living pressures, with the pause in electricity credits and the focus on lower public transport fares or free transport – which are well and good but deliver no support if you don’t use buses or trains.