A businessman with links to the Chinese Communist Party purchased land next to proposed sub-bases, yet the ADF spooks didn’t know until they read it in the paper. Rex Patrick reports.
The Australian Submarine Agency has an annual departmental resourcing budget of $500m. Defence Intelligence has $1.1B. Our domestic security agency, ASIO, has a resourcing budget of $500m (and a truckload of secret money on top), while our foreign security agency, ASIS, gets $850 million and our electronic eavesdropping agency, ASD, gets $2.6 billion.
That’s a lot of money keeping us safe, yet the government learnt that Chinese businessman Wang Yongxin, president of the Shanghai Xinyang Chamber of Commerce, had bought significant blocks of land next to a prospective submarine base site at Port Kembla and Newcastle Port after reading about it in the newspaper.
Neither confirm nor deny
When MWM used Freedom of Information laws to find out what went on at the Foreign Investment Review Board in relation to the foreign purchase of land next to prospective submarine bases, Treasury refused to say anything about what had been going on behind the scenes.
They hit us with a big fat “neither confirm nor deny” any documents exist.
Neither confirm nor deny: Foreign Investment Review Board secrecy
Only after a fight in the Administrative Review Tribunal has Treasury relented and handed over some documents, revealing it wasn’t because of national security or law enforcement; rather, it seems because of embarrassment.
Read all about it!
On 18 July last year, journalist Jack Quail at The Australian published an article with the headline “AUKUS port purchase alarm: fears of Chinese Communist Party links”.
By 2:30 PM on the same day, Chris Tinning, the First Assistant Secretary of the Foreign Investment Division in Treasury, sent an email to Sheridan Kearnan, First Assistant Secretary, Strategic Policy, at the Department of Defence.
“You may have seen reporting in the Australian Newspaper today raising concerns regarding the purchase of commercial property near Port Kembla.
“The purchase in question have not [been] subject to assessment under the Foreign Acquisition and Takeover Act. Our preliminary assessment base on available information is that the value of the properties
fall below screening thresholds for commercial property.
“We would be grateful for your advice on whether there matters raise concerns from a Defence Perspective that may trigger a Reviewable National Security Action (RNSA) under the FATA.”
Documents revealed (Source: Treasury)
The email was circulated around Defence by Ms Kearnan and by 4:30 PM the then Vice Chief of Navy (and now Chief of Navy), Rear Admiral (now Vice Admiral) Matt Buckley, a submariner himself, had weighed in.
Buckley’s views have been redacted for security reasons.
The land grab
The Government has not finalised where a future AUKUS East Coast submarine will be. As such, there are no restrictions on a Chinese Communist Party-linked buyer purchasing land next to the base. But the land has been bought, and as Prime Minister Albanese has found out in relation to a buyback of a Port of Darwin lease, it’s not easy to take it back once the deal’s been done.
During the last election campaign, Albanese announced that a returned Labor government would ensure the Port of Darwin, leased by Landbridge – a subsidiary of the Chinese Shandong Landbridge Group – would be returned to Australian hands.
“Australia needs to own the Port of Darwin,” the prime minister declared.
But on 29 January this year the empire struck back. Chinese Ambassador to Australia came out publicly and blasted Albanese on his Port of Darwin plans. “Over the last 10 years, Landbridge has invested a lot. Starting from last year, the Darwin Port has stopped losing money and started to make money. Suddenly we hear the government of Australia wants to take it back,” he said.
“When you’re losing money, you lease it to a foreign company,
and when it has started making money, you want to take it back.
That’s not a way to do business.”
Then came the punch line: “If anything happens, like the port [being taken] back by force or forceful measures, then we have an obligation to take measures to protect the Chinese company’s interest.”
It was a belligerent message from our largest trading partner: no forced sale, or else!
It is likely China will adopt the same approach for the land that’s been acquired in Port Kembla and Newcastle Port precinct. It’s another case of the Australian Government being asleep at the helm.
Government approved espionage. Who approved land purchases near potential AUKUS ports?
Rex Patrick is a former Senator for South Australia and, earlier, a submariner in the armed forces. Best known as an anti-corruption and transparency crusader, Rex is also known as the "Transparency Warrior."