Both the prime minister and opposition leader have announced plans to return the Port of Darwin into Australian hands if re-elected. The port was controversially leased to Chinese-owned company Landbridge for 99 years by the former Northern Territory government in 2015.
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00:00Anthony Albanese did jump ahead of Peter Dutton, and the Prime Minister will explain his own
00:07reasons in greater detail later today.
00:10But let's talk about Peter Dutton and the reasons that he has outlined for an intervention
00:17to resume Australian ownership or control of the Port of Darwin.
00:22It was awarded a decade ago to the Chinese-owned company Landbridge under a 99-year lease.
00:29Now that lease was executed by the Northern Territory Government, but it was only done
00:36after consultation with the then Coalition Government federally in Canberra.
00:41Well Peter Dutton has said today that that was a mistake in giving it to Landbridge in
00:48the first place, and that circumstances have deteriorated strategically when it comes to
00:54China.
00:55He cited the recent circumnavigation of this country by a People's Liberation Army Navy
01:01vessel and also the fact that some 100 Allied warships pass around the Top End and a number
01:10of them make visits to the Port of Darwin in any given year.
01:14So he says that in a two-step process he would seek to regain Australian control.
01:21This could be through commercial negotiations over an Australian-owned or Australian-aligned
01:27company taking the lease, that means buying the lease, or if those commercial arrangements
01:33weren't able to be negotiated then there are powers that a Coalition Government federally
01:40would be prepared to use to compulsorily acquire the Port and then to compensate on just terms
01:47the Chinese company Landbridge.
01:50So that's the outline of the reasons and the pathway to re-nationalising this port
01:56if it comes to it.
01:57Why don't we hear directly from Peter Dutton as he explains the thinking behind it.
02:02My time as Leader of the Opposition indicate that the position has only deteriorated and
02:07we've now seen of course the circumnavigating of our country by Chinese naval ships.
02:12So we need to make sure that we recognise the times in which we live and why it's important
02:17for us to take back this particular asset.
02:22So Greg is there a sense of how the Chinese Government might respond to this?
02:26Two things on that Mel.
02:28One, Peter Dutton has said that he gave advice or forewarning to the Chinese Ambassador who's
02:36based here in Canberra in the Embassy.
02:40So Landbridge itself, which doesn't technically speak for Beijing at all, it is resisting.
02:48It said last night when it heard the Prime Minister foreshadow his position that the
02:53Port of Darwin is quote not for sale.
02:56So that does sound like it will hit some resistance.
02:59As to the Chinese Foreign Ministry or other central organs of the Chinese Government,
03:06we haven't yet heard a formal response.
03:09But we do know that when this has been spoken about before by government or indeed by analysts
03:17in Australia, there's been much protection and defence of that Landbridge arrangement
03:24by the Government in Beijing.
03:25So we'll await a formal response from the Chinese Government itself.
03:29But just to be clear, Landbridge is going to have to be dragged I think into these negotiations.
03:37That said, it might also see the writing on the wall now that both sides are lined
03:41up in a bilateral position, really a bipartisan position on this.