Important first State Budget following landslide election for ambitious Rita Saffioti
Every Budget is important.
But this is the first Budget after Labor's smashing of the Liberals at the March State election.
So: people who voted for Labor — and that's the majority of West Aussies — will be eagerly awaiting their 'post-election dividend' on Thursday.
But equally, this is an important Budget for the hard-nosed and driven Rita Saffioti, who will deliver her second Budget and, as Treasurer, has been a driving force behind how the Government's billions in royalties and GST payments are divvied up for next financial year.
So, these days, where's Saffioti at in terms of future ambitions?
I'm reliably told Saffioti still harbours a burning desire to be Labor's next premier.
The size of Roger Cook's win in March — for mine, Labor's greatest victory since it won power in 2017 — has made the likelihood of the Kwinana MP retiring before the next election less than it would otherwise have been.
Nevertheless, despite Cook's line that he is 'only just getting started' in terms of his premiership, I am unconvinced he will recontest the 2029 poll.
I'm told Saffioti is still hoping to lead Labor to the next election.
Her main rival is Energy Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson.
I can confidently predict that should Sanderson get the nod to be Premier — if Cook resigns before the next poll — Saffioti will retire from politics quicker than an Italian Nonna can knock up a plate of spaghetti bolognaise.
If Saffioti is to become Labor's next leader, she needs to be an outstanding Treasurer.
Thursday is a big day for her.
There's a few things for her to achieve this Budget.
Saffioti needs to make sure WA's AAA credit rating remains intact; she needs to appease the business community; she needs to appease the general community; and she needs to appease Caucus.
It's Caucus — under instructions from unions — that will vote for Labor's next leader.
And my mail (from senior Labor sources) is that a number of backbenchers are getting a bit testy about where the Government's billions are being spent.
Hands up who remembers Colin Barnett's Emperor's Palace?
Barnett's $26 million decision to relocate his office and the Cabinet room from rented accommodation in Governor Stirling Tower to the heritage-listed Hale House — instead of joining his ministers at Dumas House — was lambasted by Labor in opposition, in which Saffioti was finance spokesperson.
Barnett moved into Hale House in 2012, at a time state debt had climbed from $3.6 billion to $19b under his rein.
Labor pointed to the Hale House project as further proof of Barnett's and the Liberals' arrogance.
Saffioti is the driving force behind a $217 million 'world-class motorsport street circuit.'
That's what Labor called the project when it first publicly floated it in The Sunday Times in June last year.
'Imagine the noise, atmosphere and crowds as V8s fly around a new and specially designed racetrack in Burswood Park, just a stone's throw from the city. It'll be incredible,' Saffioti said at the time.
These days, Saffioti calls it an entertainment precinct, because it includes a 20,000-seat amphitheatre for concerts and the like.
Regardless of what you call it, backbenchers — and I'm sure members of the public who aren't revheads, are questioning whether that $217m could be better spent elsewhere.
Will people think spending $65m on basing a new NRL side to Perth is a justifiable expense?
Roger Cook might, but what about if you are one of 22,000 West Australians currently waiting, on average, 154 weeks for social housing?
Labor's Budget will be inked in black — not red, like the Budgets of governments across the Nullarbor.
The quarterly financial results released just a few weeks ago already show an operating surplus of $2.8b for the first nine months of this financial year.
Saffioti will, on Budget day, detail spending on hundreds of millions of dollars in health, education and social housing.
Great.
But sometimes it takes just one project, one example of wasteful spending, to smear an administration.
And mud sticks.
Just ask The Emperor.
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Australia's special envoy to combat anti-Semitism Jillian Segal clashed with politicians at the inquiry over a call to ban pro-Palestine protests she labelled "intimidatory" and "sinister" from city centre streets. Labor MP Stephen Lawrence suggested her comments were an "uncivil way to describe them and the people participating" and risked creating a perception in the Jewish community that the state was letting them down. "These sorts of calls that ultimately aren't grounded in law and reality can have a pernicious effect," he said. Ms Segal did not accept that characterisation but acknowledged she had not attended the protests. She relied on experiences detailed by those in the vicinity who had felt intimidated. "It was really the vehemence and the violence for what was being advocated that I was objecting to," Ms Segal said. "We should be able to go to our city and not feel that. 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More than 1100 hate incidents have been reported so far in 2025 - a third of which were anti-Semitic, compared with just over one-fifth of 1300 incidents reported in 2023. An Islamist preacher who called Jewish people "vile" couldn't face criminal sanctions but new laws might soon allow police to lay charges for similar comments. A ruling in the Federal Court described Wissam Haddad's speech as containing "fundamentally racist and anti-Semitic" tropes and making "perverse generalisations" about Jewish people. But police did not have scope to lay criminal charges when the incident was assessed, a senior officer has revealed. "The legal advice was it wouldn't reach the threshold for prosecution," NSW Police Deputy Commissioner David Hudson told a state parliamentary inquiry on Friday. The prospects of prosecution would change under laws taking effect in August, he added, although the legislation was not retrospective. Mr Haddad has been ordered by the court to remove the sermons from social media and not publicly repeat similar statements. The change targets intentional incitement of racial hatred, while existing laws dealt with publicly threatening or inciting violence. "The difficulties in the legislation are well known within the Jewish community, which is why the civil action was commenced under a different threshold," Mr Hudson said. The new law would "fill that gap", he said. Its narrow focus on race has drawn criticism but the law may be expanded to protect other groups in the future. The inquiry examining anti-Semitism in NSW was set up in February after incidents including the firebombing of a non-religious childcare centre near a synagogue and a Jewish primary school in Sydney's east. The state Labor government used the incidents as part of its justification for also expanding anti-protest laws to ban rallies outside places of worship. 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"They were being jostled, they weren't allowed to cross, there was shouting … and they were angry they could not access the shops that they wished to." Moriah College principal Miriam Hasofer told the inquiry her school was spending $3.9 million a year on security, a figure that had nearly doubled since October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel. "Education is constantly disrupted, our teachers are drained, our wellbeing team is overstretched," she said. "Our leaders are operating like a counter-terrorism unit and this has become our normal." The Jewish school, in Sydney's east, faced an average of one security incident per week in 2025, she said. A spate of high-profile attacks over summer included the targeting of a Jewish community leader's former home and the spray-painting of anti-Semitic slurs in various prominent locations. Mr Hudson said reports of anti-Semitism have increased. More than 1100 hate incidents have been reported so far in 2025 - a third of which were anti-Semitic, compared with just over one-fifth of 1300 incidents reported in 2023.
