Thread: Why and how did the NT government lease the Port of Darwin to a Chinese firm ?

Originally Posted by bob10

This article goes into the details of what happened. As our PM said when asked during a visit to Darwin " they didn't tell us " Pays to read the article.

So the Port of Darwin goes on sale ‘lease’ and the Federal Govt. knows nothing about it?

Give me a break.....

Leasing, as opposed to selling a piece of infrastructure to a foreign country makes a great deal of sense. Should the lessee break the terms of the lease (ie, become an aggressor to us), the lease would simply be cancelled and all improvements made by the lessee would be forfeited to the government.
People panic unnecessarily sometimes and the calls of ‘emotive clap trap’ in this thread are well founded.
The fact that the NT government appears to have completely wasted the proceeds from the lease is another matter. I’d say that THEY are more a threat to national security than anyone else.

We have far too many governments in this country. THAT is a very sad fact. When NT got its own government (previously they came under SA), along with an entire parliament for ACT it just made the waste worse than ever

Originally Posted by Ean Austral

at the time it was going thru consultation phase they were originally going to include fishermans wharf and the fishing boat harbour commonly known as the duck pond. At the time I was directly or indirectly managing about 35 boats so I attended at least a dozen meetings and some were open public meetings and some were closed with both landbridge reps and what surprised me was usually only 1 person from local government. During those times both sides of government had senior ministers visit Darwinbut they never seemed to care , they were more concerned about the impex gas plant being build in the harbour which is I think Japanese owned and the first 15 yrs of gas is already marked for overseas not a drop for local sales.

At 1 of the meetings I got chatting to a couple of blokes from the US state department who were amazed at the lack of concern from Australians.

I did read the article.

Cheers Ean

Thanks Ian. I just can't believe this was allowed to happen.

One port leased to another Government might be fine,,,
bit when THAT same Government leases a second,, surely ALARM bells should be ringing in Canberra...

Originally Posted by harro

So the Port of Darwin goes on sale ‘lease’ and the Federal Govt. knows nothing about it?

Give me a break.....

That's what I thought. Read the article.

Apparently the US Navy was looking at building a major naval base in the next harbour to the west of Darwin Harbour . Bynoe harbour has very deep water access and is close enough to Darwin as the crow flys that major road access wouldn't be that hard, there are already roads that lead to several parts of it now . This probably has a lot to do with why the USA was so against the lease of Darwin port.

I am not sure if that plan is still on the table or not , but remember we do have s big contingent of Marine up here all year round .

Cheers Ean

Originally Posted by Ean Austral

Apparently the US Navy was looking at building a major naval base in the next harbour to the west of Darwin Harbour . Bynoe harbour has very deep water access and is close enough to Darwin as the crow flys that major road access wouldn't be that hard, there are already roads that lead to several parts of it now . This probably has a lot to do with why the USA was so against the lease of Darwin port.

I am not sure if that plan is still on the table or not , but remember we do have s big contingent of Marine up here all year round .

Cheers Ean

If Japan succeeds in moving most of the Marines on Okinawa, Prepare for many more.

Where fools rush in. Perhaps you should read this.

Where fools rush in: The Leasing of the Port of Darwin and the Rise of China - >> The Australian Independent Media Network