Western Australia thrives when every community is vibrant and everyone can live well, participate meaningfully and be supported. Our vision is for a fairer, more inclusive WA where investment builds lasting prosperity for all.
The 2025-26 WA Budget highlighted another year of growth in the WA economy (state final demand up 3.4 per cent) and another budget surplus ($2.5 billion) occurring on the back of rapid population growth (300,000 people or 11.3 per cent over the last five years, including 2.4 per cent in 2024). The Treasurer spoke of $13.7 billion investment in “economic infrastructure” to maintain our prosperity – but the announcements spoke only of “poles and wires, pipes and ports.”
Our economy isn’t powered by concrete and cables alone. It’s powered by people – their ideas, skills, creativity, care and work. Investment in productivity and the wellbeing of our people has the greatest impact on future prosperity and resilience. This is where we need to target public investment.
When communities are supported by strong health and care systems, people live longer, safer, healthier lives. Quality education ensures our population has the skills and confidence to participate meaningfully in society. These services create the conditions for WA to thrive, which in turn strengthens our social fabric.
Social infrastructure drives economic growth, enabling the productivity and capability of our workers and decision makers. A well-supported, healthier workforce is more creative and productive, and less likely to burn out or make dangerous and costly mistakes. Care services are also enablers of workforce participation both as female-dominated industries advancing gender pay equity and as enablers of disability employment inclusion (where the untapped workforce potential remains huge).
Early education and care, schooling and further education also play a crucial role in helping us to identify and develop our latent talents, enabling innovations that underpin future technological and economic transformations. Investments in these industries yield returns, not just in gross domestic product or state final demand, but in economic stability and innovation.
Policy makers must remember that a strong economy cannot be built on short-term gains or narrow measures of success. When we focus on generating and measuring real outcomes for our community, we are better able to identify and invest in programs and systems that deliver more productive and cost-effective longer-term economic outcomes. Better targeting of support earlier reduces the cost of crisis services and improves wellbeing.
Investments in early education and development, for example, are long-term and well beyond the impacts of this year’s budget and election cycle. They are also absolutely foundational, which is why their returns are so high.
Underinvestment in our children and young people today may prove costly and difficult to undo into the future. Recent data shows the consequences of failure to invest – WA children have gone significantly backwards on their school readiness in the last three years.
When governments invest in health, education and care services, they are enabling economic activity. Too often these investments are perceived as mere costs and not linked to their outcomes. By prioritising these investments, the WA Government can lay the groundwork for a more sustainable future where prosperity is better shared and more enduring. It is clear that now is the time to focus and align our efforts to build a better future in the West.