And what role, if any, did Andrew Robb play? Absolute confidentiality is assured. Foreign and strategic policy has effectively been left to the local level. This suggests Chinese authorities regard Darwin as having strategic significance. Robb, one of nine children, was born to Frank and Marie Robb, on a dairy farm in Epping which lies 18 kilometres (11mi) north of Melbourne. He served as Minister for Trade and Investment (20132016) in the Abbott and Turnbull governments, and also briefly as Minister for Vocational and Further Education in the Howard government in 2007. Chinese company secures 99-year lease of Darwin port in $506m deal Please try again later. Port Darwin - Wikipedia The Chinese owner of the Port of Darwin is using the port as security to seek a $500 million loan from the Chinese government's trade bank. In February 2016, Andrew Robb quit his role as Australia's trade minister having just finalised the Australia-China Free Trade Agreement. Fairfax Media and Four Corners are not suggesting that Mr Robb has breached his obligations as an ex-minister. The upcoming federal election would be the time to have it, he added, but questions from the ABC to Prime Minister Scott Morrison's office about the Darwin Port and Chinese influence went unanswered. [22], Robb is part owner of The Boathouse Group, which operates a number of Sydney restaurants and other venues. The company knows how to cultivate political connections. Darwin port's sale is a blueprint for China's future economic expansion "The proposal has been fully recognised and highly affirmed by the Shandong Province Party Committee, the Provincial Government and the Department of Commerce," the Chinese government statement said. Now, in a climate where national security concerns dominate the China relationship, the deal seems like a strange throwback to a simpler time a time when ministers like Andrew Robb and Josh Frydenberg could pose for photos with CCP-aligned Chinese billionaires, and when the relationship with our biggest trading partner was dominated by economic optimism. Zhang Jie, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, wrote in 2015 about the concept of first civilian, later military in which commercial ports are to be built with the goal of slowly being developed into strategic support points to assist China defending maritime channel security and control key waterways. Robb became deputy director of the Liberal Party before being appointed chief of staff to Andrew Peacock, then Leader of the Opposition, in 1989. But its immediate commercial risks are relatively contained. . He was succeeded by Steven Ciobo as Minister of Trade and Investment on 18 February 2016. Following a front-bench re-shuffle in March 2010, Robb was appointed Shadow Minister for Finance, Deregulation and Debt Reduction, a post previously held by Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce, and chairman of the Coalition Policy Development Committee. Former trade minister Andrew Robb, who . At the time, Mr Robb had already been working for Mr Ye for eight weeks, and had earned $146,000, including GST but minus expenses. By Leith van Onselen. Infrastucture Australia advised privatisation. "That model of developing other sites around the waterfront is part of the model that has been used in Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Djibouti and other places," he said. Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Following the election of the Abbott government in 2013, Robb was appointed Minister for Trade and Investment. Darwin Port owner Landbridge seeks $500m loan from China Billionaire Ye Cheng is the owner of Landbridge, which controversially acquired the 99-year lease for the Port of Darwin in 2015. Darwin already has no less than six sister city arrangements, including with the Chinese city of Haikou. Now not so much. They must also ensure their personal conduct upholds the reputation of Parliament. Former trade minister Andrew Robb has quietly ceased his controversial $880,000 per annum consultancy with a company closely linked to the Chinese government, as the deadline looms for lobbyists for overseas state interests to sign up to Australias new foreigninfluence register. Australias foreign investment review processes have been tightened. Darwin port deal is a nice little earner. A Landbridge Group company statement obtained by the ABC said Mr Robb was appointed to the role by chairman Ye Cheng at an "auspicious" ceremony two months ago. We recognise that their sovereignty has never been ceded. The Chinese company that upset the defence establishment by buying the Port of Darwin is looking for oil and gas acquisitions in Northern Australia to boost trade through the commercial port. Then there is the role of Andrew Robb. Mr Robb's consultancy with the leaseholder of the Darwin Port, Landbridge, was trumpeted by the Chinese-government aligned company in 2016, but became intensely controversial when an . 2021 The Betoota Advocate | Site by Twisted Pear Concepts |, Support independent rural journalism, support Betoota, Everyday Bloke Sledges Rivals By Referencing 1962 Psychological Thriller Starring Frank Sinatra, Ageing Millennial Still Holding Hope For The Skins Style House Party She Didnt Get In High School, WA Acting Like Nobodys Seen A Swan Before, Medical Student Makes It Through Entire Conversation Without Explaining How Long Shes Gonna Be At Uni Haha, Vocal Anti-Plastic Campaigner Probably Gonna Stick To The Bottled Water In Bali, South Australia Makes Tourism Play To Bring 2028 Solar Eclipse To Adelaide, Scientists Reveal First Images Of New Omicron Sub-Variant, Tasmanian Family Living In Caravan Stoked Government Is Dropping Hundreds Of Millions On A Stadium, Plus One On Wedding Table Full Of People She Doesnt Know Really Ploughing Through The Wines, Bondi Rental Agency Under Fire For Asking Applicants To Upload Photographic Evidence Of Their Clear Skin, Precocious Little Shit Reckons This Isnt Real Carbonara, Wests Tigers Are Going To Win The 2023 NRL Grand Final. Thats open. "We love yuz all!" Robb claimed in 1991 that Peter Reith and Hewson were spooked into releasing their policies too early. Every contribution, however big or small, keeps the lights on for this cowboy operation. The federal government is considering scrapping a 99-year lease of Darwins port to a Chinese company, the latest point of tension in an increasingly chilly relationship between Canberra and Beijing. But now, by design or not, the Darwin port deal increasingly looks like a blueprint for how Chinese interests can take control of foreign ports as it is doing by various means around the world without arousing local opposition. For some, it's the exercise of debt and debt collection.". 2:30pm, Apr 27 . / -12.4708; 130.8483. Nine years of serving you has come to an end! Mr Brumby announced in February he was quitting the Australian board of Huawei, the Chinese telco accused by security agencies of posing a security risk to western communications infrastructure. Former Australian trade minister Andrew Robb walked straight out of Parliament last year and into an $880,000-a-year job with a billionaire closely aligned to the Chinese Communist Party and its key trade policy. We are guided by a deceptively simple, old idea: tell the truth and shame the devil. Andrew Robb, Martin Ferguson, Peter Reith and Stephen Conroy are among the former ministers who swiftly took jobs as lobbyists Thu 27 Jun 2019 14.00 EDT Last modified on Thu 27 Jun 2019 21.35 EDT In this role Mr Robb negotiated Free Trade Agreements with South Korea, Japan and China, as well as the 12 country Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement and the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with Singapore. Any attempt by Landbridge to use the port as security to borrow money from a Chinese bank would trigger renegotiation of the lease. There has been some tweaking of rules about political parties accepting foreign donations. Peter Dutton says circumstances were different in 2015. [13] He had carriage of final negotiations for the AustraliaKorea Free Trade Agreement (KAFTA), JapanAustralia Economic Partnership Agreement, ChinaAustralia Free Trade Agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership which have concluded by the federal government. The late 2015 deal with Landbridge shocked the country and led to the most-asked question in the Curious series history, about why the NT decided to lease the port to a foreign company and how they got away with it. Robb remained a member of . Landbridge signed . [3] Robb was still federal director when internal Liberal party negative polling was leaked to Kerry O'Brien on Lateline in May 1994 who embarrassed John Hewson with it and lead to Hewson's calling a leadership spill where he lost the leadership to Alexander Downer. Robb is also the co-publisher of The Party Room alongside Senator Mitch Fifield,[citation needed] a journal designed to promote new policy discussion within the Federal Coalition. Mr Robb joins former foreignminister Bob Carr and former Victorian premier John Brumby in leaving lucrative roles with companies or, in Mr Carrs case, a think tank, founded by businessmen with strong ties to the Chinese Communist Party. "We can't afford to be afraid of China, in the sense that when we need to speak up about issues that concern us, we have to be able to do that; otherwise if we run scared, we've already half lost.". There are certain things that have been thousands of years in the making with regard to China, such as saving face.. Three months later, Mr Robb was on Landbridge's payroll.Credit: Landbridge. Ninety-six years is a long time by any standard. This website is dedicated to the public interest. The was not without its controversy - even before Australia-China relations soured, as Andrew Robb, a former minister for trade, took an $880,000 consultancy position with the Chinese group immediately following his exit from politics in 2016. In cases like Sri Lanka, China offered loans to build infrastructure. Chinese-owned company Landbridge has a 99-year lease over the Darwin Port. John Garrick does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. Soft power goes hard: China's economic interest in the Pacific comes with strings attached. Its estimated that Mr Robb pocketed more than $2 million plus expenses from Landbridge. Scott Morrison's Role In Selling Darwin Port To China [27], The following week, Robb said in an interview with 3AW's Neil Mitchell that he had found "doing things increasingly more difficult, I could be taking on more responsibilities especially in a public sense and decided to confront it a few weeks ago.