The federal government announced on Friday afternoon that a review by key security agencies of the Darwin port lease had found “robust” systems were in place to manage the risks.
The Port of Darwin was leased to the Chinese-owned Landbridge Group in 2015.Glenn Campbell
The lease was signed by the former Country Liberal Party government in the Northern Territory in 2015 and prompted a Defence Department review by the then Morrison government which found there were insufficient grounds to scrap the lease.
Former US president Barack Obama also expressed displeasure to former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull when the lease was first signed,asking that the US be kept in the loop on such decisions in future. The US has a contingent of up to 2500 Marines that rotate through Darwin each year.
During the 2022 election campaign Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to Landbridge for $506 million,and indicated a willingness to use foreign veto laws to cancel the lease if necessary.
The review has not been publicly released but in a statement released on Friday afternoon,the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet said it had found there was insufficient national security grounds to overturn the lease.
It concluded “there is a robust regulatory system in place to manage risks to critical infrastructure,including the Port of Darwin” and that “existing monitoring mechanisms are sufficient and will be ongoing”.
“As a result,it was not necessary to vary or cancel the lease,” the statement said.
“Monitoring of security arrangements around the Port of Darwin will continue. Australians can have confidence that their safety will not be compromised,while ensuring that Australia remains a competitive destination for foreign investment.”
The review was conducted by spy agency ASIO,the Office of National Intelligence and four government departments.
The decision to allow Landbridge’s lease to remain in place comes just weeks before meet President Xi Jinping.
Senator James Paterson,who is the shadow home affairs minister,said that in opposition Albanese had called the lease of the Port of Darwin “a grave mistake”.
“Despite promising to deal with it,now he’s squibbed it,cynically dropped it on a Friday afternoon after parliament has risen and after his media appearance for the day,” Paterson said.
The head of the Northern Australia strategic policy centre at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute,John Coyne,and Australian Defence Association director Neil James both criticised the review for failing to examine the broader implications of a Chinese-owned company controlling a critical deep water port.
A US air force bomber lands at an Australian base in Darwin in 2018.AP
Coyne said the issue with the Darwin port lease was not that it could open the door to spying but that the Landbridge lease left “future development in the hands of Landbridge and I don’t think their interests will align with ours”.
“Beijing will be happy,it reinforces their capacity to invest in critical infrastructure. Did the government consider the broader impact on development in Darwin harbour and how the lease will affect that? If you keep asking the same agencies the same questions,you will get the same answers,” he said.
“There is no doubt in Washington this won’t be well received either. It hardly shows that we are looking at national security holistically.”
James said the agencies “kept inventing straw men arguments against terminating the lease,but never address the actual problems”.
Australia’s top spy has accused China of large-scale industrial espionage,revealing Beijing tried to infiltrate a top research institute.
“The key problem is,no matter how many safeguards you have,to initiate any of them during a time of tensions,you’re doing it at the worst possible time. Anything you do will be escalatory[sic],that’s the fundamental problem and that will never change,” he said.
“This may be influenced by the fact that tensions with China are easing but that won’t last. The Americans have been hoping we would bite the bullet and fix the problem.”
Landbridge is owned by Chinese billionaire Ye Cheng. The port is governed by a range of Commonwealth laws,including the Security of Critical Infrastructure Act,the Defence Act and a deed of licence for access to the port.
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