Premier Roger Cook defends increase in highly paid public sector executives despite Opposition criticism

Premier Roger Cook has defended the increase in the number of senior executives in the public sector, despite more than 100 highly paid bureaucrats being hired in just three years. The senior executive service grew beyond 480 staff in 2025, up more than 32 per cent since 2022 according to analysis by the Public Sector Commission. The total number of executives is lower than at the end of the Liberal Barnett government but the Opposition has criticised the figure compared to a 7 per cent increase in police numbers. On Monday, Mr Cook blamed population growth. “Each department has their own demands and those demands primarily come from the fact that since we were elected in 2017 we’ve seen a 20 per cent increase in Western Australia’s population,” he said. “A fifth more people are now living in WA and so that puts demand on services, that puts demands on regulatory arrangements, that puts demand on all parts of our public sector.” According to the Public Sector Commission, of the 186,171 people employed in the public sector, about 70 per cent were employed through the Department of Health or Education as of September. Mr Cook said the public sector increase had been felt across the board. “Seventy per cent of that increase has been in health and in education, making sure we’ve got more teachers and people who support them, making sure we’ve got more doctors and nurses and the people who support them,” he said. “When we came to power in 2017, we said that we would reduce the senior executive service profile on our public sector wages down to 0.9 per cent. “I’m pleased to see that it’s sitting around about 0.73 per cent, which is roughly half of what it was when we took office in 2017.”