Darwin port: Deal to lease site of military base to Chinese company for 99 years labelled 'short-sighted'

Up to 2,500 US Marines train there as part of increasing American defence resources in the Asia-Pacific region

Australia can retake control of the port for defence purposes, Malcolm Turnbull said (Getty)

Australia’s Prime Minister has been forced to defend the controversial leasing of a strategically important port to a Chinese company, saying the military could seize control in a crisis.

The Northern Territory government has struck a deal to lease Darwin port to the Chinese government-linked Landbridge Group for 99 years. The deal has attracted criticism because Darwin is an important military base, where up to 2,500 US Marines train as part of increasing US defence resources in the Asia-Pacific region.

Barack Obama raised the deal in discussions with Malcolm Turnbull at an Asia-Pacific Economic Co‑operation summit in the Philippines. Mr Turnbull said Australian defence officials were not concerned by the deal and had not lost control over the port. “The Department of Defence or this federal government can step in and take control of infrastructure like this in circumstances where it’s deemed necessary for purposes of defence,” Mr Turnbull told reporters in Manila.

Andrew Krepinevich, the president of the Washington-based think-tank Centre for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, wrote in The Australian newspaper on Tuesday that the port deal appeared short-sighted.

“At worst, it threatens to undermine Australia’s relations with its closest security partner, the US, at a time when the latter is finally beginning to put serious effort behind its ‘pivot’ to the Asia-Pacific region,” he wrote.

Australians are wary of increasing Chinese investment, especially from state-owned businesses, with suspicions that China wants to weaken Australian ties to the US and feed Chinese industry with Australian natural resources at discount prices by buying mines and farms.

Even as Mr Turnbull was playing down the Darwin concerns, officials announced a ban on foreign investors buying S Kidman & Co, a pioneering dynasty’s ranch holdings. The company has 10 cattle ranches, a bull stud and a feed lot covering 101,411 sq km.

Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board found that the sale to foreign investors would be contrary to the national interest, partially on security grounds. Kidman owns the world’s biggest cattle ranch, Anna Creek Station. Half of it is inside a military rocket firing range.

AP