Rockingham AUKUS taskforce: 47 recommendations, housing worry

The taskforce was set up by WA Labor earlier this year. WAtoday reports that it ran for four weeks, surveyed fewer than 1000 people in the area and made 47 recommendations. Across the four areas it examined, WAtoday says the report found one consistent message: whether Rockingham can absorb the influx of defence workers is the top community concern.

Premier Roger Cook said the communities around HMAS Stirling would be at the forefront of the transformation, WAtoday reported.

The report has drawn sharp criticism. WA Greens MP Sophie McNeill called it a damning admission that the government failed to advocate for the community, and likened it to the ABC sitcom Utopia. She said it says AUKUS needs careful planning, then lists planning failures in health, housing and transport with no explanation of how governments will fix them.

The numbers

The report relays Australian Submarine Agency advice that about 2300 arriving personnel and families will settle within 30km of HMAS Stirling. WAtoday quotes the report as saying that is under 5 per cent of the dwellings forecast to be built across the region in the next five years.

WAtoday said the taskforce acknowledged the 2300 figure but noted it makes up a small share of the supply coming. The report also refers to 1200 SRF-West personnel from the US and UK, of whom around half will be unaccompanied.

McNeill pointed to a $2 million transport announcement made in Rockingham on the day, which she said was not new funding but repurposed Commonwealth money. She also referred to $8 billion in upgrades planned for HMAS Stirling and a further $88 million announced by Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles to train the AUKUS workforce. Her verdict was blunt: “The Rockingham community should be up in arms.”

What’s next

Submarine rotations start in 2027, and the housing, health and transport questions raised by the taskforce sit alongside that timetable. WAtoday notes that Henderson’s industrial precinct, further north, is gearing up to become a major shipbuilding and submarine maintenance hub, adding to regional demand.

The government has now released its response to the 47 recommendations. The source does not set out which recommendations are accepted, funded or timed, and The Australian Developer will report on that detail when it is published. For other Perth housing supply news, see Butler build-to-rent: 60 apartments start.

Sources

• WAtoday: AUKUS taskforce findings panned as Rockingham ranks housing concerns high, 12 November 2026