Australian assets could ‘fall into Chinese hands’ [MIRRORED]

Sky News host Peta Credlin says Belt and Road not only opens Victoria up to the risk of undue Chinese influence, it makes a “mockery of the Constitution” by allowing states to run their own foreign policy. The Morrison government will next week introduce legislation to parliament seeking the power to tear up agreements with foreign powers seen to be going against Australia's national interests. On the list of 42 agreements that would come under review, 27 related to China, the most significant of which pertained to Victoria's participation in the "Belt and Road" initiative. The plan would cover agreements made by all federal, state and local governments and universities. Ms Credlin said the Constitution clearly specifies foreign affairs as under the national parliament and Commonwealth’s purview. “That doesn’t mean that a state can’t ever do a deal with any foreign government, but it does mean that the Commonwealth is in charge, if it chooses to exercise its authority,” she said. “Belt and Road has become a form of debt-trap-diplomacy, where weak and impoverished governments take loans to build, or to buy assets, that then revert to Chinese ownership when the borrower can't repay. “It's not inconceivable that, under the Belt and Road arrangement, state-owned assets like ports, schools, hospitals, and other infrastructure, could fall into Chinese hands if the Andrews government turned out to default on debt payments.”