Northern Territory Chief Minister Adam Giles blamed the opposition to his government's leasing of Darwin's port to a foreign company on Australia's "xenophobia".

In an interview on the ABC's Lateline, Mr. Giles said:  "I think there is a high degree of xenophobia, but I think that is part of the Australian spirit." 

Last year, the Landbridge group from China's Shandong Province won the right to operate the Darwin Port on a 99-year lease.  Landbridge is paying AU$506 million for the lease to operate Darwin, with the Northern Territory government planning to use the proceeds to invest in new infrastructure.

But the deal made the Obama Administration in Washington nervous, because the US "pivot" to Asia includes stationing as much as 2,500 troops at the port.  The US embassy commissioned opinion polls on the deal, and found that 89 percent of Australians responding believed the leasing posed at least some risk to national security.  

Despite that, Giles says his Government is more than ever standing behind the decision to lease the port to Landbridge:

"We all stand up for what we believe in. We are parochially proud as a nation and whenever new people come in we are always skeptical," he told Lateline, "We went to market, we found a good partner, and we're very happy with the position we have taken."

 

Northern Territory Chief Minister Adam Giles