Chinese community members in Darwin are urging federal Labor and the Coalition to reconsider plans to take back the Darwin Port lease from Chinese-owned company Landbridge.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00A federal promise to take back the Darwin port lease from Chinese company Landbridge.
00:09Some believe it could make a meal of the NT's fragile economy.
00:14That will make it worse. Not only the business itself, also the investors' confidence.
00:22In the throes of this year's federal election campaign, both Labor and the Coalition have
00:28managed to get the port back into Australian hands, raising concerns from within Darwin's
00:34Chinese community.
00:35In Darwin, we don't have any major project so far for many years, so Darwin port is probably
00:43the one still alive.
00:45Events like this Darwin Dragon Boat Festival also receive annual funding from Landbridge,
00:52which community members fear will go and not be replaced once the lease is removed.
00:58For people living in the community here forever, like us, we do care and we feel very disappointed
01:07and very sad.
01:09It's hard to see this as anything aside from partisan politicking by both sides.
01:13Prior to the election promises, Landbridge's lease had been reviewed by successive federal
01:18governments, with no national security threats made clear.
01:22The sale was made in 2015. Governments of both stripes have been in power over the past
01:28decade. None of them have moved to get rid of the Chinese ownership of the port.
01:33If the next government can't find a buyer to take over the port and it's forced to strip
01:38the lease from Landbridge, the cost will likely be huge.
01:42And that'll be coming straight from the taxpayers' hip pocket and, you know, for no apparently
01:47good national security reason.
01:48Neither Labor nor the Coalition responded to questions about how much they'd pay to
01:53take back the lease. Or if there'd been any new national security advice over the
01:58port's operation here in Darwin that had come to the fore.