Cockburn Sound is the intended west coast base of operations for the AUKUS class submarines, the stop-gap Virginia class submarines and the regular rotation of United States and British nuclear submarines.
It stretches 25 kilometres south from the mouth of the Derbarl Yerrigan/Swan River to Point Peron in Rockingham. It is bounded to the west by Meandup/Garden Island, which is also the location of Australia’s largest fleet base, HMAS Stirling.
The attitude local councils adjoining Cockburn take to the greater presence of nuclear-powered submarines on their doorstep, and to AUKUS more generally, was an important backdrop to the Western Australian local government elections on October 18.
The presence of nuclear powered vessels in this stretch contradicts the Nuclear Free Zone policies adopted by the City of Fremantle and City of Cockburn in the wake of the anti-nuclear movement of the 1980s and 1990s.
In Fremantle, the position was strengthened by council’s endorsement, in 2018, of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons “Cities Appeal”, a global call from cities and towns in support of the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and its lead role in the international organisation, Mayors for Peace.
Critics of AUKUS and supporters of the nuclear-free policies were angry that local councils fell in behind the AUKUS push, refusing to undertake community consultation.
Cockburn council effectively junked its previous position, when councillors voted seven to three, in June 2024, to adopt AUKUS as a “pillar” of its economic development plan.
While Fremantle’s formal policy remained unchanged, former Mayor Hannah Fitzhardinge, a member of Labor, spruiked the supposed benefits of AUKUS to local business owners and participated in a $14,000 a head July 2024 “fact finding” trip of US naval shipyards by local mayors and CEOs.
The trip was paid for by the Perth South-West Metropolitan Alliance, a regional local government organisation, funded by participating local governments. Its purpose was to prime local governments to play a role in supporting AUKUS.
The Australian Submarine Agency, the federal body responsible for overseeing the nuclear-powered submarine program, views such organisations as vital to changing minds over the AUKUS nuclear submarine program.
Stop AUKUS WA decided to profile candidates who had actively opposed AUKUS in Fremantle and Cockburn. In Fremantle, these included sitting councillor and mayoral candidate Ben Lawver and East Ward candidate Nick Everett, who is Secretary of Friends of Palestine WA and a member of WA Socialists. While Everett was not elected, he polled nearly 20% of the primary vote.
Lawver defeated incumbent mayor Fitzhardinge, winning 55% of the vote after preferences.
While AUKUS was not the only issue contributing to his win, it was certainly one in suburbs containing the state’s most left and green voters.
Fremantle’s “Nuclear Free Zone” policy is scheduled for review and Stop AUKUS WA will be campaigning to ensure that the incoming mayor and councillors reaffirm and strengthen it.
In Cockburn, Stop AUKUS WA endorsed Phoebe Cork for mayor, Josh Last in Central Ward, who is a member of Socialist Alliance, and Robyn Walsh, a member of the Greens in West Ward. All three are active with Stop AUKUS WA. None were elected, but Corke won nearly 20% of the primary vote and remains a councillor. Incumbent mayor Logan Howlett narrowly defeated Deputy Mayor Chontelle Stone, who is even more enthusiastic about AUKUS, including it in her campaign material.
The need for local government to champion a world free of nuclear powered and armed submarines and to actively oppose governments’ drive to war, being used to justify AUKUS, is made all the more necessary because of WA Labor’s approach. Not only has it welcomed the supposed economic benefits of AUKUS, it has turned Defence West into a stand-alone statutory body, whose purpose is to use AUKUS to turbo charge the WA “defence” industry.
Stop AUKUS WA will protest outside the WA Labor conference at the Esplanade Hotel in Fremantle November 8, starting at 8am, to be followed by a protest for Palestine at the same location from 11am.
[Sam Wainwright is active with Stop AUKUS WA and is a member of Socialist Alliance, and a former City of Fremantle councillor.]