A Chinese company has expressed an interest in purchasing part of the Flinders Ports business, which has seven operations in SA — including Port Adelaide’s inner harbour.
According to The Advertiser, retiring Trade and Investment Minister Martin Hamilton-Smith and SA Government bureaucrats met senior managers of the Chinese company, Landbridge, last September, but no formal proposal has been made.
Peter Jennings from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute has told the paper the Port Adelaide site — close to where the $50 billion future subs will be built — would be of “extremely high interest to Chinese intelligence”.
“With regard to the submarine construction, we really are talking about the jewel in the crown of sensitive technology,” Mr Jennings told the paper.
“The port would also be of extremely high interest to Chinese intelligence, because they are actively out there looking for any advantage they can have in terms of intellectual property theft, to get it for themselves.
“If you have got something that is within visual range, that also means it is an area from which you can have a wide array of electronic eavesdropping technology used to gather data from the Osborne construction site. That would automatically put up a major red flag.”
Chinese company Landbridge at centre of Darwin Port security scare meets SA Minister Martin Hamilton-Smith in a play for SA’s Flinders Ports. https://t.co/i0hbXWxmZT
— The Advertiser (@theTiser) January 18, 2018
The government issued a response to the report on Friday morning:
A suggestion Chinese companies may take over #SthAus ports appear baseless at this stage, with the govt receiving no firm proposals #FIVEAANews pic.twitter.com/2CsuqtxKfy
— Matthew Pantelis (@MatthewPantelis) January 18, 2018
