Why Australia is a Toy Nation By James Reed
What Asian country would prostitute out a strategically vital port to a foreign power who it may soon be at war with it? Surely only one with a death wish. Do you think say Japan would do this, for a few dollars more? But, fear may produce sanity before the 11th hour.
“The federal government should consider reclaiming Australian ownership of Darwin Port if the facility's long-term lease to a foreign corporation is found to be against the national interest, a federal parliamentary committee has recommended.
Key points:
- Chinese company Landbridge paid $506 million for the long-term lease of Darwin Port
- The deal included 100 per cent operational control and 80 per cent ownership of the port
- The committee says the government should explain if the deal is subject to the new Foreign Relations Act
The Northern Territory government, under the previous CLP administration, leased the strategically important infrastructure to Chinese firm Landbridge in 2015.
The 99-year deal triggered immediate concerns among some defence and diplomatic analysts because it gave operational control of the port to a foreign company at a time when tensions between the two nations were escalating.
The United States, which in 2012 began deploying hundreds of US Marines to Darwin each year, felt so blindsided by the port deal that then-president Barack Obama conveyed his concerns directly to then-prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.
The Joint Standing Committee on Trade and Investment Growth on Wednesday released a report examining Australia's trade and investment reliance on certain countries and the need to diversify its strategies.
Among its 21 recommendations, the committee suggested the federal government provide a report on whether the Darwin Port lease is subject to Australia's new Foreign Relations Act.
The legislation gives the Commonwealth the power to veto foreign agreements struck by states and territories, as well as local governments and universities.
The committee stated: "[If the port deal is subject to the act], consider taking measures to have the Port of Darwin brought back under Australian ownership if current arrangements are not deemed to be in the national interest."
It also recommended other Australian ports and strategic infrastructure owned or leased by foreign corporations be reviewed under the act.”
Well, there is the gentle alternative of surrender now to China, becoming officially part of China and dissolving our parliament. That would excite the Left, in all sorts of weird ways, until Chinese academics took their university jobs and they were recruited to new “universities of the sands,” in the Simpson Desert:
Forced to make a choice, I choose China over our own decadent Leftist elites.
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