Premier Roger Cook admits he was wrong to oppose Optus Stadium in 2013, defends Burswood street circuit

Roger Cook has launched a strident new defence of the proposed Burswood street circuit, declaring that he was wrong to oppose Optus Stadium when he was in Opposition in 2013. The Premier insisted he was on the right sight of the debate this time around, despite a growing public backlash that now includes Federal Labor MP Patrick Gorman, who told The Sunday Times that it “should not proceed”. “These projects always produce a certain amount of debate,” Mr Cook said. “There’s a photo of me standing in a puddle in gumboots saying how this is a dreadful place to put a stadium. “I was wrong. Optus Stadium is a great facility . . . which the whole community now embraces.” In 2013, Mr Cook accused Liberal premier Colin Barnett of “spending like a drunken sailor and driving the State’s debt up” when he spoke against the plan to build a stadium at Burswood. It opened in 2018 with Labor in power. Mr Cook also shrugged off new polling commissioned by the Liberal Party that was used to fuel claims of a growing Burswood backlash and hospital crisis, and put Opposition Leader Basil Zempilas ahead in the preferred premier stakes for the first time, 49 to 47 per cent. “We’ve seen dodgy polling before and the Leader of the Opposition has a track record of this,” Mr Cook said. The pollster has been kept secret, with the Liberals only revealing that it was done by an “experienced” firm. Mr Cook was still ahead 53 to 43 per cent with Perth metropolitan voters, in a total sample size of 648 people. Labor insiders also claimed a question that emphasised the “race track” part of the Burswood project might have skewed the results. “Look, there was a poll six months and one day ago in WA, it was a poll of the WA people and it made a decisive assertion and a decision to back a WA Labor Government,” Mr Cook said. Asked whether they support the race track at Burswood, the Liberal Party claimed that 77 per cent of those surveyed opposed it and only 5 per cent were in favour. “Nobody wants it. Only Rita Saffioti and the Premier seem to be persistent and insistent that it gets built,” Mr Zempilas said. “It is very, very clear that they have backed the wrong horse on this one.” The Premier did leave a tiny bit of wriggle room on Tuesday by not ruling out the option of abandoning if costs blow out beyond the $217.5 million already allocated. “Minister Saffioti is undertaking the process for developing the business case,” Mr Cook said. “I’m not aware of where that’s up to at this point in time but, obviously, that will give us line of sight in terms of the costings. “As to the costings, we need to understand what they are first. “I’m not going to comment on a hypothetical in relation to what they might be.” The Burswood entertainment precinct that was announced from the driver’s seat of a V8 Supercar has sparked a growing public backlash, from the local council, conservationists, the Opposition and the Greens. There are also claims that some Labor backbenchers are privately against it. In front of the cameras and alongside Mr Cook on Tuesday, Rockingham MP Magenta Marshall said she was all for it. “Burswood is a long way from Rockingham, so it’s not necessarily a local hot topic issue,” she said. “But I have had people come up to me in the street and shake my hand and say, ‘Please tell Roger to go ahead with the Burswood project, we really want to see that come online’, so I have no issues.” The Government is aiming to build the street circuit in time for the opening round of the V8 Supercars in 2027 but Mr Cook would not be drawn on whether he was hoping public sentiment would shift before the next State election in 2029.