Malcolm  Turnbull has some advice for US President Barack Obama: he should read the NT News

Malcolm  Turnbull has some advice for US President Barack Obama: he should read the NT News

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and NT News editor Rachel Hancock in the NT News printing press.

MALCOLM    Turnbull has some sage advice for US President Barack Obama: the Commander in Chief should be reading the NT News.

Mr Obama reportedly chided Australia’s new “rich dude” PM, claiming he would have liked a “heads up” about the NT Government’s decision to lease the Port of Darwin to a Chinese company.

“Let us know next time,” the President said to the Prime Minister, after he reportedly learned of the 99-year lease by reading about it in the New York Times.

Mr Turnbull responded by quipping that the President needed to subscribe to Australia’s favourite newspaper, ­the NT News.

The Prime Minister will be in Darwin today on his way back from meeting world leaders in Manila.

During the friendly exchange in the Philippines, Mr Obama told Mr Turnbull that Washington should have received a “heads up about these sorts of things”, in reference to the $506 million Port deal.

The NT News front page on Friday, November 20, 2015, reporting the news that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull thinks US President would be better off reading the NT News than the New York Times

So to make sure Mr Obama is always in the loop about developments in the Top End, which hosts annual rotations of more than 1000 US Marines, the NT News has decided to give the President a year-long free digital subscription.

Mr Obama, who was in Darwin exactly four years ago this week to announce the build-up of US marines and military aircraft in the Top End, said he remembered the paper for “putting me on the front page with a crocodile”.

And indeed the President is quite correct.

The NT News welcomed the arrival of Mr Obama in Nov­ember 2011 with a front page photograph of the President, offering him free crocodile attack insurance with the Territory Insurance Office (TIO).

Last month, it was revealed that a Chinese-owned company was awarded a 99-year lease on the Darwin Port.

Infrastructure Minister Peter Chandler yesterday played down concerns that the US had not been involved in negotiations of the Port lease.

“I think it’s already been said that perhaps he should subscribe to the NT News,” Mr Chandler said.

“At the end of the day, Defence has been in discussions with the Northern Territory around the port leasing deal. Defence has signed off on it.”

He added that Territorians should not have reservations about the long-term lease ­arrangements to the Chinese owned company.

“I think at the end of the day, people are getting a little bit excited here,” Mr Chandler said. “If I own a home and I lease it to a Chinese family does it mean that those people have taken my home?

“The answer is no.

“This is not a Chinese takeaway. You can’t just pick the port up and take it away.

“It is in Australia, it’s here and it’s here to stay,” he said.