Darwin, Shenzhen education agreement being looked into

AN AGREEMENT between the NT government and a Chinese city of 12 million has been raised with the foreign minister, amid a crackdown on foreign interference

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AN AGREEMENT between the NT government and a Chinese city of 12 million has been raised with the foreign minister, amid a crackdown on foreign interference.

Senator Sam McMahon has told the NT News she raised the Territory’s agreement with Shenzhen’s education department in 2019 directly with foreign minister Marise Payne.

The two also discussed the Darwin Port, which was controversially sold by the CLP to a Chinese company for $506 million.

The latest revelations come after the commonwealth nullified an agreement between the Chinese regime and the Victorian government.

Ms McMahon said the agreement between the NT government and the city of Shenzhen, struck in 2019, was primarily related to education.

“That’s definitely a discussion which I have had with foreign minister Marise Payne,” she said.

“I have asked the minister to look into that and also the deal Michael Gunner signed with Shenzhen Education department.”

She added that the Shenzhen agreement had a “lack of transparency”.

“It’s obviously a fairly controversial deal in the Northern Territory,” Ms McMahon said.

“We don’t actually know the details.

“I would like to know that the federal government is completely comfortable with that arrangement.”

Shenzhen is also a sister city of the City of Darwin, signed after direct flights were opened between the two centres.

Ms McMahon said she also raised the Darwin Port sale, but claimed “the Department of Defence have no issues with that”.

However, NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner has fired back at the Senator, saying the Shenzhen agreement was signed off by the federal government.

“It is a public document which was done in consultation with the Australian Government which effectively created a ‘sister schools’ arrangement,” he said.

“The Australian government is welcome to look at it again any time and change their mind, no dramas with us, but the trigger and target of the commonwealth reforms, as I understand it, was the CLP and their sale of Darwin Port.”

“Anything Senator McMahon can do to reform the CLP and their processes would be welcomed by the Territory Labor government and, I’m sure, the Australian LNP Government.

“The CLP have never said they regret selling the Port to a Chinese company and the CLP have never apologised to Territorians or Australians for the consequences of the sale.”

Federal Labor MP Luke Gosling on Friday said that the Darwin Port’s ownership by a CCP-affiliated company should be reconsidered, joining a chorus of other politicians including Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie.