Skip to main content
Westport Threatens AUKUS

One provision, in one bill

Westport is the Western Australian project moving the state's automated container terminal beside the naval base hosting United States nuclear submarines. This is what we are asking Congress to do about it.

The ask

Support a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act restricting commercial container port development within ten miles of critical international military assets, including allied bases hosting United States nuclear submarines.

The ten mile radius around HMAS Stirling, drawn to scaleA circle of ten miles radius, about sixteen kilometres, centred on HMAS Stirling, the Western Australian naval base where United States nuclear submarines will rotate under AUKUS. That circle is the limit the campaign asks Congress to write into the National Defense Authorization Act: no commercial container port development inside it. The container terminal the Westport project proposes at Kwinana is plotted about six kilometres, or 3.7 miles, east of the base, which is just over a third of the radius and well inside the ring. The diagram is drawn to scale by distance and shows no coastline.5 milesHMASStirlingKwinanaabout 6 km, or 3.7 milesTen miles, about 16 kmN
Drawn to scale by distance. The ring is the ten miles the provision would set, centred on HMAS Stirling, the base where United States and United Kingdom submarines will rotate. The marker is the container terminal Westport proposes at Kwinana, about six kilometres out, just over a third of the radius. No coastline is shown and nothing else is plotted, because a ring diagram makes any point placed on it look measured.

What ten miles covers

Ten miles is about sixteen kilometres. The automated container terminal Westport proposes at Kwinana would sit about six kilometres from HMAS Stirling, which is 3.7 miles, comfortably inside the ring rather than close to its edge. That is the whole of the arithmetic, and it is why this provision reaches this project.

The rule is a siting restriction, not a veto. It does not stop Western Australia building container capacity, and it does not touch the submarine rotation. What the water actually looks like, and why six kilometres of it matters, is set out on The Threat.

What to raise in a congressional office

Five points, each of which can be checked against a published document on The Evidence.

  1. The base is an American investment

    HMAS Stirling in Western Australia is where United States Virginia-class submarines will rotate under AUKUS. American money, American infrastructure spending, and American crews are going into that base.

  2. The port decision was made before AUKUS existed

    Westport became Western Australian state policy before the AUKUS agreement was announced in September 2021. Nothing in its design accounted for allied nuclear submarines, because at the time there were none.

  3. The two would share one channel, and then cross paths inside it

    Cockburn Sound has a single narrow navigable entrance, and submarine movements and commercial container movements would use the same confined water. Inside the sound, the shipping channel to the new terminal crosses the route submarines take between HMAS Stirling and their maintenance facility at Henderson. Traffic there is projected to more than double.

  4. No published risk assessment covers the combination

    The public record contains no risk assessment of the relocation conducted after AUKUS, no threat assessment on weaponised merchant shipping near the base, and no published screening plan for foreign-flagged vessels entering the sound.

  5. The remedy is a siting rule, not a veto

    A distance restriction on commercial container port development near critical international military assets does not stop Western Australia building port capacity, and does not touch the submarine rotation. It moves one terminal.

Message your representative or senator

The provision is an amendment to a bill both chambers vote on every year. A constituent asking about it is the whole mechanism.

Find your representative

Enter your ZIP code on house.gov to reach your member of the House and their contact form.

house.gov

Contact your senators

Every senator’s office, web form, and phone number, listed by state on senate.gov.

senate.gov

A draft you can edit

Offices weigh a message in a constituent’s own words far more heavily than an identical one arriving a thousand times. Change it, cut it, or use it as notes for a phone call.

Dear [Representative or Senator],

I am writing about the security of United States nuclear submarines based at HMAS Stirling in Western Australia under AUKUS.

The Western Australian government plans to move the state's container terminal to Kwinana, about six kilometres across Cockburn Sound from that base. The sound has one narrow navigable entrance, used by submarines and commercial shipping alike, and the shipping channel to the proposed terminal crosses the route submarines take between the base and their maintenance facility at Henderson. Almost all of that commercial traffic is foreign flagged.

The project was made state policy before AUKUS existed, and no risk assessment of the relocation conducted since has been published.

I am asking you to support a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act restricting commercial container port development within ten miles of critical international military assets, including allied bases hosting United States nuclear submarines.

The published analysis is at westportthreatensaukus.org, a campaign sponsored by the Maritime Union of Australia, WA Branch.

Sincerely,
[Your name and address]

Contact the campaign

For congressional staff, policy researchers, and anyone who wants the underlying documents. Journalists on deadline should use the press page instead.

We use what you send to respond to your message. We do not sell or share it. See the Privacy Policy.

Send it on

This campaign reaches American policymakers through people who forward it. Sharing the ask is the most useful thing most readers can do.

Share the ask

Help this reach more people who can act on it.