Roger Cook is panicking about Secret Harbour. He's just dropped $9 million trying to keep it

Premier Roger Cook's Government has announced roughly $9 million of spending in the Perth seat of Secret Harbour in a single week, four weeks out from a by-election there, and $5 million of it isn't in the State Budget.

Labor used to hold the place comfortably. Paul Papalia won it in March 2025 with 61.54% after preferences, a margin of 11.5%, and he'd held the area since 2008. He announced his retirement on 6 July because of an immediate family member's serious illness, which is what triggered the 29 August by-election. Cook has already said in public that holding the seat will be "very tough".

Governments announcing money in seats they're defending is ordinary politics and every party does it. What's worth a second look here is the size of it, the fact that it all landed in one week, and that more than half of it was never in the Budget the Government says it's delivering.

Nine schools, a TAFE workshop and a park, all announced inside seven days

Three announcements, in and around the one electorate:

• Wednesday 29 July: $5 million for a new electrical training workshop at South Metropolitan TAFE's Rockingham campus, announced by Skills and TAFE Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson
• Thursday 30 July: $2.95 million for sports courts, cricket nets and playgrounds at nine schools, announced by Cook with Labor candidate Georgia Tree beside him in Port Kennedy
• Sunday 27 July: a Labor MP posts that a new youth park at Lakelands is “fully funded”, crediting the Labor candidate and the Treasurer. There's no government media statement for it, and the post carries no dollar figure. The West Australian reported the amount as $1 million

Rod Caddies, One Nation's leader in Western Australia, called it "pork-barrelling on steroids".

"We've seen the Premier and his ministers featuring the Labor candidate in press conferences and social media content when announcing government spending and projects clearly targeted at Secret Harbour," Caddies said. "The line between official government work and campaign activity is being blurred, and that should trouble anyone who cares about fair elections."

The $5 million for Rockingham TAFE isn't in the Budget Labor handed down in April

One News has read all six of the 2026-27 State Budget papers. The Rockingham money isn't in any of them.

That absence means something, because the Budget itemises TAFE building work in detail. It names a $1.5 million electrical training facility at South Metropolitan TAFE's Armadale campus, a $12.2 million heavy vehicle driver training facility at Neerabup, a $24.5 million expansion at Munster, and equipment purchases as small as $650,000. There's no Rockingham project in the 2026-27 papers, and there wasn't one in the 2025-26 papers either.

Budget Paper No. 3 settles it. It carries a table listing every major spending change to training capital works since the mid year review, which is the official record of what's new in a Budget. For Training and Workforce Development there's exactly one entry, and it's the Munster expansion.

Sanderson's own statement describes the Rockingham money as a new commitment, for a workshop that would take up to 340 electrical apprentices and pre apprentices a year. It doesn't say which appropriation it's coming out of.

In fairness to the Government, the Rockingham campus sits in the neighbouring seat of Rockingham rather than in Secret Harbour, though it plainly serves families across the district.

All nine schools that got money on Thursday sit inside the by-election seat

The Government's statement puts the schools figure at almost $3 million. Itemised, it's $2.95 million:

• Golden Bay, Endeavour, Lakelands and Port Kennedy primary schools share $1.7 million for sports courts
• Secret Harbour Primary School gets $600,000 for an early childhood playground
• Singleton and Comet Bay primary schools share $350,000 for playground upgrades
• Comet Bay College gets $150,000 to resurface and repaint courts
• Rockingham Lakes Primary School gets $150,000 for cricket nets and surfaces

Checked against the Parliament of Western Australia's electorate profile, which lists the district as covering Golden Bay, Karnup, Lakelands, Madora Bay, Port Kennedy, Secret Harbour, Singleton and part of Warnbro, all nine are inside the by-election seat. Not one is outside it. There are only about 12 government school sites in the district's main suburbs, so this is most of the public schools in the electorate in one hit.

On this money, Cook's claim is confirmed. It comes from a statewide program Labor promised at the 2025 election, a Minor Upgrades commitment worth $83.1 million in total, whose second and final tranche of $41.1 million is spread across 61 schools. The Budget describes that tranche as delivering upgrades to "sporting facilities and play spaces".

What the Budget doesn't do is name a single school and which schools go first is decided afterwards, by the Government. On 20 April, when the Budget was handed down, Labor said the minor works tranches would deliver "over 100 upgrades" across the whole State. Nine of them were unveiled in one electorate, 30 days out from a by-election, with the candidate standing beside the Premier.

Cook rejected the pork barrelling charge when reporters put it to him at the announcement.

"You guys kind of have it both ways. You can't say on one hand that this is just you doing what you're always doing delivering for the community, and on the other hand, saying it's pork barrelling."

He'd already told the same press conference: "Georgia's delivering for this community."

Rhys Williams says the Lakelands park is “fully funded thanks to” Georgia Tree and Rita Saffioti

The $1 million for a youth park at Lakelands is the piece with the least paper behind it. One News searched the WA Government's media statements register for Lakelands, for youth parks and for Secret Harbour. There's no statement announcing it, and there's no line for it in the Budget.

Small community grants never appear as Budget line items. The State hands out $21 million a year through its Community Sporting and Recreation Facilities Fund and another $52.2 million in sports infrastructure grants, and neither is broken down project by project. The $1 million could have come from either without leaving a trace.

What's unusual isn't the money, it's how the public heard about it. The commitment surfaced on 27 July in a Facebook post by Labor MP Rhys Williams, the member for Mandurah and a former Mandurah mayor. “Great news for Lakelands and Madora Bay,” it began. “A new youth park, fully funded thanks to Georgia Tree for Secret Harbour and Rita Saffioti MLA.”

Saffioti is the Deputy Premier, the Treasurer and the Minister for Sport and Recreation, so she's the minister who'd sign off a community park grant. Williams then tied the park straight to the campaign. It was, he wrote, “a great example of why we need Georgia repping these fast growing communities”.

The post itself carries no dollar figure. The $1 million was reported by The West Australian, which published a screenshot of it.

Tree is a candidate. She isn't a member of parliament, she isn't a minister, and she can't allocate a dollar of public money. Lakelands itself is inside the Secret Harbour seat, even though it sits in the City of Mandurah council area.

Tree has kept her distance from WA Labor's head office campaign, which has been running social media attacks on One Nation's federal leader Pauline Hanson.

"Negative campaigning is nothing new, but I will say that's for the WA Labor Party. I am focused on my own campaign and my own socials, as I've said, are overwhelmingly positive."

One Nation polled 8.43% in Secret Harbour last year, and Luke Herdegen is why Labor is nervous

The reason a safe seat has stopped feeling safe isn't the Liberals. At the 2025 election One Nation's candidate took 8.43% of the primary vote in Secret Harbour, according to the Western Australian Electoral Commission's declared result, from a standing start.

One Nation's candidate this time is Luke Herdegen, a gym franchisee and former national weightlifting champion picked by Caddies in July. He's one of 16 candidates on the ballot. The WA Liberals have preferenced One Nation above Labor, and the party has treated the contest as a dry run inside Andrew Hastie's federal seat of Canning, at a point when national polling has One Nation competitive enough to talk about government.

Liberal leader Basil Zempilas, whose own candidate Ryan Robertson is a City of Rockingham councillor, went after Cook's argument from a different direction, asking why the money hadn't turned up while Labor held the seat.

"What was [former Minister] Paul Papalia doing then over the last 10 years," he said. "Effectively, he's bad mouthing a minister who's just bowed out in family circumstances, and we know that he wasn't a bad performer. That's insulting to Paul Papalia, and it shows the pressure that Roger Cook is under."

Labor held Secret Harbour by 11.5% and has now spent roughly $9 million there in a week. Voters decide on 29 August.