Rebuff for Stirling as US hub
Defence Minister David Johnston has poured cold water on Rockingham one day becoming a hub for the US Navy, saying Cockburn Sound is too shallow for big warships.
In a major change of rhetoric from the previous government, Senator Johnston said the channel to HMAS Stirling was a "choke point" and dredging would be too expensive.
"I know the channel. It's predominantly shallow water," Senator Johnston said.
"And for anybody who has sailed a boat in Cockburn Sound, you know that at certain points you can hop out and walk."
He said taking a task force, a 95,000-tonne aircraft carrier and big US Navy amphibious vessels there was not feasible.
Former defence minister Stephen Smith was a strong advocate for a bigger US military presence at HMAS Stirling, saying its strategic importance would increase "as night follows day".
The US Navy using HMAS Stirling as a "hub" was a major point of talks with former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton and defence secretary Leon Panetta in Perth last year.
Senator Johnston said he believed the major future threats to Australia were sea lanes and trading routes to the north.
But he stopped short of committing extra military hardware to WA to protect those areas.
"I see us exporting an enormous amount of energy to East Asia," he said. "I see piracy as one of the principal threats for our really valuable LNG boats, our mineral exports and our agricultural exports."
Rather than "moving things all over the place", it meant Australia had to be aware that the "principal economic region that pays the bills" is to the north and west.
"Should something happen that meant we were no longer the reliable supplier that we have been, it would be very economically damaging to us," Senator Johnson said. He said he was committed to the cultural change Mr Smith began in the defence sector, including opening all military roles to women.
"High-end war fighting is really a matter of science today and science has never been gender specific," he said. There would be an ever-increasing role for women in the Australian Defence Force similar to the mining industry over the past 25 years.
