Labor’s plan to link with China
AUSTRALIA could sign up to China’s vast Silk Road infrastructure plan under a future Labor government which could see the Asian superpower have greater input into projects in the nation’s north.
Despite the controversy surrounding a Chinese company winning the 99- year lease to operate the Port of Darwin in 2015, Labor is vowing to look at how Australia’s northern development plan and China’s One Belt One Road plan can “complement” each other.
It comes as a report by the Australian Taxation Office shows Chinese interest in Australian farming land rose by 880 per cent – or 13 million hectares – in the past year.
Sixty- eight countries including New Zealand have so far signed up for the One Belt One Road infrastructure plan, which aims to boost trade and cut transit times by forging a connection via the ancient Silk Road land route and sea routes with Eurasia, Africa, SouthEast Asia, the Middle East and Europe.
Australia has been holding out, mostly over national security concerns.
In a major speech to the Asia Society in Sydney today, Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen will flag support for potential Australian involvement in the plan. Mr Bowen will argue the scheme “will have profound ramifications for years to come”.
“We will come to office if we win the next election with an open mind as to how Australia and China can best collaborate on the Belt and Road Initiative, with a clear- eyed approach to our respective national interests,” Mr Bowen will say.
“We will examine proposals on a case- by- case basis including considering how the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility and the Belt and Road Initiative can best complement each other.”
Labor’s foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong has also spoken favourably of the scheme and believes Australia should be more confident about harnessing its opportunities.
She maintains the Abbott government’s initial reluctance to join the China- led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank in 2014 was “timorous and self- defeating”.
Roads, railways, high- speed train networks, maritime ports and airports are among the projects the scheme is building and funding. It’s open to all countries, not just those physically on the ancient trade routes.
There is $ 1.8 trillion worth of projects already initiated.
The scheme – which is Chinese President Xi Jinping’s signature foreign policy – is more than seven times larger than America’s Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe after the Second World War.