PHOEBE CORKE is a musician, educator, former journalist and current City of Cockburn councillor. These thoughts are her personal views. She does not speak on behalf of the council or the City.

DID you know we’re living in the “greatest arms race in our region since 1945”? 

I didn’t until defence industry minister Pat Conroy said so while announcing a $7 billion long-range missiles deal with the US. 

Seven billion dollars sounds like a lot until measured against Defence funding for the next decade; a mind-boggling $764.6b.

For context, total Australian taxation revenue FY22-23 was $755.8b.  

Life is feeling increasingly surreal, as if we are living in a strange alternate reality where hardly anyone cares about other people, the environment, community or place. 

We’re not investing in each other but throwing unthinkable amounts of money at diverse ways to kill each other, getting involved in fights that are none of our business and making the worst, most one-sided, deleterious deals known to mankind whilst throwing away our sovereignty. 

Good job.  

I’m not going to discuss the debacle that is AUKUS and the proposed nuclear waste storage facility on Garden Island. 

I’m not going to debate the implications of Australia recently supporting US forces launching air strikes on Houthi positions in Yemen. 

Instead I’m staying local and focussing on the recent $20b announcement that the Henderson Australian Marine Complex will become the “biggest naval maintenance hub in the entire southern hemisphere”. 

I’m hearing, “Yay, jobs. Yay, economy” a lot. 

Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for jobs and I’m all for economic benefits. 

However, a proposal of this magnitude cannot be looked at in isolation. 

All the implications – social and environmental – must be considered. 

This requires comprehensive concept planning, including infrastructure needs.  

If the devil is in the detail, then this is a saintly project. 

The precinct boundaries are unknown, it will be 12 to 18 months before there is an integrated master schedule. 

We do know there will be a nuclear licenced facility there and that, eventually, parts of the Common User Facility will no longer be available to commercial businesses. 

This may force them to relocate to another (not yet determined) site, while potentially losing workers to Defence. 

Ten thousand new jobs would be fantastic, but both state and feds acknowledge staffing the precinct will be difficult given the AMC’s record low unemployment rate. 

WA is short on people with clearances and Defence experience. 

This means a substantial number of these 10,000 new workers will be from elsewhere

Where will they live? We’ve already got a worsening housing crisis – families living in cars or tents, some with young children, unable to find or afford a home. 

Rents are sky high and we’re not meeting current new build targets. 

How will we manage even more pressure on our housing stock? 

It’s not just a shortage of housing stock and available land, there’s also a shortage of building materials and construction workers. 

Are we going to bring in more construction workers too? 

Where will they live? How will this impact building costs?

How will these 10,000 workers get to work? 

Presumably they will drive, given the lack of public transport, and the local road network is already under pressure with the current 7,000-strong workforce.

Where are these workers going to park while at work? 

Seriously – where will they park?

Then there is the pressure on schools, healthcare, childcare – it’s a long list – without even starting to evaluate increased emissions and environmental impacts, both on land and at sea. 

“Large vessel infrastructure” – will additional dredging be required? 

The speed at which all this is being imposed on us is alarming and, frankly, terrifying. 

We are all aware of the power of the politics of fear. 

There’s a federal election round the corner and flexing military muscles has always been a vote winner.

But the impacts from what is happening now will be felt long past the election. 

I grew up in England at a time that could be very scary.

I was in London for several IRA bombings and felt the blasts. 

Some friends’ parents had fall-out shelters in their gardens and I spent time at the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp protesting nuclear weapons, before Chernobyl fallout engulfed Europe. 

In contrast, Western Australia has always felt safe. Really safe. 

It doesn’t anymore.

Not because of external threats, but from the actions of our own government.