Richard Marles and Solomon MP Luke Gosling raise doubts about the future of Darwin port deal

Darwin Port’s Chinese owner would offload its 99-year lease if an investor stumped up $1.3bn, according to a source who has held discussions about acquiring the facility.

Darwin Port’s Chinese owner Landbridge would offload its 99-year lease if an investor stumped up $1.3bn, according to a source who has held discussions about acquiring the facility.

The revelation comes as federal Labor cast doubts on the lease arrangement, with Defence Minister Richard Marles and Solomon MP Luke Gosling signalling a potential shift in the government’s support for Darwin Port’s lease.

Inked in 2015 by former CLP Chief Minister Adam Giles and backed by then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, the controversial lease has been subject to two government reviews and a sea of conjecture.

In separate interventions in the past week, Mr Marles and Mr Gosling have both ghosted the controversial 99-year, $506m deal that still has 90 years left to run.

Luke Gosling MP. Pema Tamang Pakhrin

In an opinion piece published in Monday’s NT News, Solomon MP and Commonwealth defence envoy Luke Gosling said the port should be returned to Australian hands.

Mr Gosling’s opinion piece was written after the weekend’s live-fire exercises conducted by the People’s Liberation Army Navy in the Tasman Sea.

“The fact is, shifting geopolitical landscapes, economic priorities and security concerns can dramatically alter relationships between nations,” Mr Gosling wrote.

“A decade can bring significant changes, let alone a century, making the CLP decision to lease our port for 99 years not just shortsighted, but reckless.

“That is why I remain committed to reacquiring the port and ensuring it remains under Australian control, safeguarding our national interests for generations to come.

“Recent global events reinforce the importance of strong defence partnerships. The presence of a Chinese naval task group around Australia, while not unprecedented, is unusual.”

Mr Gosling has not once in nine years as Solomon MP toured the facility in an official capacity with Landbridge.

Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles. Picture: Kym Smith

The CLP’s Solomon candidate Lisa Bayliss toured the facility this month.

Mr Marles during a radio interview last week raised the prospect of federal intervention, when he said the federal government was again looking at the leasing arrangement.

This is despite it having previously been subject to two reviews, the most recent released in October 2023 that identified “a robust regulatory system in place to manage risks to critical infrastructure, including the Port of Darwin”.

The review said “existing monitoring mechanisms are sufficient and will be ongoing and; as a result, it was not necessary to vary or cancel the lease.

“The government has accepted that advice.”

Mr Marles said Darwin Port “has been under consideration … along with, you know, other investments we look at very carefully”.

“Well, I mean, it’s been under consideration and it’s difficult for me to go further than that in public. But we look very carefully at investments that are made into Australia in terms of the security implications of them.

Darwin Port. Picture: Floss Adams

“In Opposition we opposed this lease to this entity. And so, you know, Labor was opposed to this in opposition and we made the commitment that we’d have a good look at this coming to government.

“So we are very much doing that. That gives a sense of where we were coming from in relation to this. We’ve not been fans of this from the get go, but you inherit the world as you find it and, you know, we want to make sure that we’re not giving rise to sovereign risk in any decisions that we’re making as well.

“So, we’re working this through. But it is really important that we are looking at significant foreign investment through the lens of our national security, which of course is the law, and that’s what we do.

“And it reflects … that we live in a strategic environment which is as complex, in some ways as threatening as we’ve seen since the Second World War.”

The federal coalition has previously called for the government to return the port to Australian hands, despite not doing so for seven years before losing government in 2022.

Landbridge has invested about $60m modernising Darwin Port, with more investment expected after a masterplan is release in the first-half of this year.

Landbridge’s Darwin-based non executive director Terry O’Connor said offers had been made to buy the port, but were nowhere near $1.3bn.

“The Board’s received no offers like $1.3bn but when offers are made the response is the same; it’s a long-term investment.”

Originally published as Richard Marles and Solomon MP Luke Gosling raise doubts about the future of Darwin port deal