Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I'm happy to be corrected on this matter, but in relation to the Port of Darwin the first thing I would say is that we have strengthened the role of the Foreign Investment Review Board, as you are aware, to ensure that infrastructure acquisitions such as the Port of Darwin are now fully and appropriately assessed. That is a change since that transaction was made. That provision of the Foreign Investment Review Board goes to precisely the point that you make.

We also, in 2018, introduced the Security of Critical Infrastructure Act, which strengthens the ability of the government to monitor and protect against risks to critical infrastructure such as water, electricity, gas, and port assets specifically—in relation to this question. That means we now have a critical infrastructure asset register to ensure that government knows who owns and operates our most critical assets. It also provided a ministerial directions power of last resort, which provides the Minister for Home Affairs with the power to issue a direction to an owner or operator of a critical infrastructure asset to mitigate national security risks.

In June of this year we announced reforms to further strengthen our foreign investment framework, and those changes will include a new national security test to ensure the government can address national security concerns arising from new individual investment proposals which would otherwise be below the screening thresholds. Subject to the passage of legislation, those reforms commence on 1 January next year. In terms of the commercial agreement between the Northern Territory government and the commercial operator of the lease of the Port of Darwin, the Commonwealth is not in a position to reverse that agreement. But since 2016, through all of those steps, we have put in place protections and provisions which ensure that, should such a transaction come to the point of being made again, all of those steps that I have just gone through are now in place to address that and the concerns you have raised.