FLASHBACK …. Six foreign warships berthed at HMAS Coonawarra, Darwin, as part of Exercise Kakadu 2024. Photo: Department of Defence
The Northern Territory Government will send a team to Canberra later this week to discuss returning Darwin Port to full Australian ownership.
NT Infrastructure Minister Bill Yan says his government had taken heart from the federal government’s rapid response the Whyalla Steelworks bailout.
Barely a day after the steelworks was placed into administration by the SA Government, a jointly-funded $2bn rescue package was announced for the Whyalla facility.
“The Darwin Port is critical to the Territory’s economic development and is a significant national security asset,” Yan says.
“We have seen the Albanese Government have no hesitation in bailing out Whyalla, and they need to show the same expediency in getting this matter resolved.”
The port was leased in 2015 for 99 years to the China-owned Landbridge Group by the Country Liberal NT government of the day.
Concerns were raised at the time about the strategic wisdom of the deal and dissatisfaction still remains today.
Those concerns were raised recently by live-fire drills by a Chinese naval task group in the Tasman Sea which prompted trans-Tasman flights to divert around the ships and led to a political row between the federal government and the Coalition.
Now a NT team is heading to Canberra on Thursday; on their agenda is a possible public-private partnership deal first raised by Federal Labor MP for Solomon Luke Gosling, whose electorate takes in the port.
Gosling reportedly called for the port to return to Australian ownership, a sentiment echoed by the Coalition.
Yan says they have been talking about the port with the Federal Government since November 2024.
“We will take all steps necessary to secure its future,” he says.
He says that given Luke Gosling’s public comments on the port, the Federal Government must end lingering uncertainty over the future of Darwin Port.
DEFENCE SPENDING
The push comes after the Australian Defence Force announced in 2024 plans to spend up to $18bn over 10 years to bolster northern Australian bases.
These works include upgrading RAAF Base Tindal to handle aerial refuellers, building new amphibious landing facilities as well as building new berthing facilities for submarines at the HMAS Coonawarra naval base in Darwin.
