And, no, I'm not happy with his handling of this. I don't think he should have ignored it, but thinking it was a non-issue, I have been willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Perth is roughly 6 days at about 40 knots and does have a ship yard. When the UAE shipyard deal was started Newport News Shipbuilding owned at least a third in the company the rest is a nationalized company of UAE. NNSBDD sold their interest back to the UAE a couple of years ago. This shipyard wasn't an emergency only facility it was doing routine and warranty work as well. In a ship yard a ships Damage Control material condition is highly compromised and is not capable of obtaining water tight integrity in most cases.
IF a yard in that region was a must have then India would have been a much better partner.