Premier Roger Cook says regional WA population must grow, Perth having 80pc of residents ‘not sustainable’

Premier Roger Cook has kicked off his 2025 election campaign by declaring WA cannot continue to funnel most of its population into Perth, and he wants to “encourage every Australian to look to regional WA as a place to live”. Mr Cook said the current situation — with 80 per cent of WA’s population in Perth — was not sustainable. With WA’s population now tipping over the three million mark, Mr Cook said a key strategy — if he wins the March 8 election — would be to grow regional centres and make them more attractive for people to live and work. Population experts agree the lifestyle and living conditions that many enjoy in Perth could deteriorate due to intense pressure to service more than three quarters of the State’s residents. Mr Cook said a key component of WA being the fastest-growing economy in the nation was growing the workforce and attracting more people to the State. “But I don’t want to see Perth continue to expand at the expense of our big regional growth centres such as Broome, Karratha, Port Hedland, Geraldton, Bunbury and Albany,” he said. “I want to see those areas grow as big urban centres. “Just tipping people into Perth isn’t sustainable.” Perth’s population growth has been the fastest in the nation for almost two years. Official data shows that as June 30, 2023, the most populated regional centres in WA are Greater Bunbury (100,578), Greater Geraldton (41,914) and Albany (40,494). To the same time, Kalgoorlie-Boulder had a population of 30,775, Karratha 24,237, Port Hedland 17,247 and Broome 18,611. UWA Professor Amanda Davies said Perth was on the cusp of having huge pressures on its services and regional centres needed significant investment to make them more attractive to existing and new residents. She said even recent huge investments in infrastructure, like the $13 billion suburban rail project Metronet, would not be enough to keep pace with the demands of a rapidly growing population. “We know that Sydney and Melbourne have huge pressures because they have grown so rapidly,” Professor Davies, the head of UWA’s school of social sciences, said. “Perth is now on the cusp of that. “While we are enjoying this brand new, large-scale infrastructure, if we got to 4.5 million, that’s going to be a really different story really, really quickly. “We don’t (for example) have enough water. “We’ll have to have more desalination. “So, distribution of the population becomes more important and critical for places like Perth.” WA has sent an SOS to the world, imploring people to come to our State to help bump up our workforce, particularly in the construction industry. But based on history, many will choose to live in Perth with their families rather than regional centres or go bush. Many West Australians working in the mining industry in northern WA are also choosing to base their families in Perth, or bigger centres like Mandurah, rather than move to regional communities up north. Mr Cook acknowledged people will happily live in country WA if housing is available and affordable — and services are up to scratch. “People love living in those (country) areas,” Mr Cook said. “But they have to be able to afford it. “They have to have places where they can live and they have to have good schools, good hospitals and livability. “Look at Queensland, where they have population centres like Mackay, Rockhampton, Cairns and Townsville. “I think we should be looking to emulate some of the growth in those regional cities.” Professor Davies said an over-populated Perth would make the WA capital a far less attractive place to live. She said even simple things, like getting to the beach, might become really tough because of increasing traffic on our roads. “Think about a summer’s day — long commutes getting to the beach because of really long commutes because the roads are clogged,” Professor Davies said. “More importantly, very significant pressures on our health-care system, difficulty finding places for elderly relatives into aged care.” She said secure employment, and making sure country WA had essential services was vital to getting people to live in those communities. “There needs to be secure employment and great facilities and services,” Professor Davies said. “Continued strategic investment (into country and regional centres) is really critical. “Investment into the primary services of health, education, local swimming pools — things that make life possible and comfortable.”