When Mark McGowan slipped him a note, everything changed for Roger Cook

Until a year-and-a-half ago, Roger Cook was happy for his career to have peaked as deputy premier.

Over two days in mid-2023, that abruptly changed.

He’d been due to fly to the US on a trade mission but recalls the premier’s office strangely insisting he delay his departure until after cabinet on Monday morning.

“So I spent most of that cabinet trying to work out if I packed enough socks and undies for this trip and how long it would take me to get to the airport, resenting Mark [McGowan] significantly because he had made me stay for this extra meeting,” he said as the ABC joined him on the campaign trail.

“And then at the end of the meeting, he passed me a note and said, ‘mate, I’ve had enough, I’m resigning’.”

A ‘ballsy’ move

The news brought the reign of the state’s most popular premier to a surprising end.

But Cook said he’d previously made his mind up that if Mr McGowan left before the next election, he wanted his job.

“So the decision for me wasn’t whether I did run for it, but, okay, what do we do now to execute this plan?” he said.

That plan got off to a rocky start when MPs aligned with the United Workers Union met to choose between two of their own and selected Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson over Cook.

For someone who describes himself as “not a big conflict person”, his decision to push back against his own union and fight on surprised some.

“It was a pretty ballsy move, and it took a certain amount of resilience and determination, and I think was the right decision,” he said.

Coldplay highlight

On the drive from his home in Wellard to the city, Cook discusses the biggest adjustment that came with taking on the premiership.

“The buck stops here,” he said.

“Nothing prepares you for the fact that, yes, here you are, you are now making this call.”

The premier’s enthusiasm for the job and being able to “make a difference to people’s lives” is clear when talking about his best day in the role.

“I’m wondering if it was the Coldplay concert, but that would make me sound very shallow, wouldn’t it?” he answers.

But it comes with its downsides too.

“Having to back up the day after my Mum died, to meet and greet around with [Chinese Premier] Li [Qiang] when he came over, that was a pretty tough day at the office,” he said. 

“Still deeply impacted by grief in relation to my Mum’s passing, but understand that I had to front up, I couldn’t not be there.”

Total control

Although Cook said he doesn’t feel he’s had to come out of McGowan’s shadow – each is a “leader for the times”, he says — there’s no doubt his predecessor has left big shoes to fill.

That includes the unprecedented 53 seats Labor holds in WA’s 59-seat lower house.

The party’s vast resources give it another leg up in the race: spreading its message.

On Instagram and TikTok, WA Labor accounts have been pumping out memes for months now, targeting new audiences in the quest to cut through.

From salty plums to housing

On the morning the ABC is with him, Cook joins a regional breakfast FM radio show — discussing everything from housing policy to some “deeply unpleasant” red salty plums he tries live on air.

By 8.45am it’s time to go through the day’s strategy over coffee before heading to his daily media conference.

Labor’s resources make these events somewhat of a spectacle. There are nine staff there, doing everything from directing the premier and cameras to the best photo opportunities to capturing content for social media.

Health is one of the key issues of the day, unsurprisingly. 

Despite everything his government has done and is promising to do, he won’t say if ambulance ramping will improve.

“I can’t tell you what the issues will be in October this year, but what you can be confident of is that we’ll provide the investments and the necessary leadership in our healthcare system to make sure that we’re in the best possible position to deal with that demand,” Cook said.

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Liberal leader Libby Mettam frequently criticises Labor for what she says are its “wrong priorities” by focusing too much on flash projects and not enough on the basics, like health and housing.

The premier describes it as a “matter of balance” as he sells his positive vision for the future of WA — which includes an under-construction film studio he visits after the media conference.

He continues those conversations at a shopping centre in Whitfords where he meets and greets locals with Hillarys MP Caitlin Collins.

It’s a seat Labor desperately wants to hang onto, having won it for the first time in 2021.

The premier’s team had initially told the ABC we would be joining him to visit a bowling club in Churchlands, the state’s most marginal seat.

But that plan changed part way through the day, for reasons he and his team would not confirm on the record. 

“One of the advantages I do have in the election campaign is that I just work through the program,” Cook said. 

“That program chops and changes all the time. 

“I’m looking forward to going down to Scarborough now and spending some time with [Scarborough MP] Stuart [Aubrey].”

Growing confidence

Cook appears self-assured as we join him, in stark contrast to a less-than-ideal debate performance two days earlier, and says he’s looking forward to having a mandate to govern in his own right.

“Having that wider mandate obviously gives you much more confidence and a sense of direction,” he said.

That could prove crucial if he wins another term in power, given he’ll likely have to negotiate with the upper house crossbench to pass his agenda.

Asked about that prospect, he reflects on the process of passing voluntary assisted dying laws in 2019 — legislation he says was achieved by “working with everyone”.

“I’m a consensus politician, and so from that perspective, I think the opportunity to talk to other parties about the laws that come before the Parliament would be welcome,” he said.

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As for how many seats he’d like to have under his belt for the next four years, Cook sets the bar low.

“Government is government is government,” he said.

“There’ll be a lot of analysis about ‘we won too many seats’, ‘we didn’t win enough seats’, but I just want to make sure that we can govern.”

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