Former Australian civil servant Richardson says China can choose to stop buying Australian resources, food, powdered milk etc-and implies that Australia hard pressed to find other markets

by Ganesh Sahathevan

As Department of Defence secretary Dennis Richardson   said it was an "oversight" to keep the US in the dark over Darwin Port's lease to China's Landbridge.

Dennis Richardson, a former civil servant and considered one of Australia's leading intelligence and security experts has told The Australian's Paul Kelly:

“If you’re going to shut the gate in respect of China, well, that’s fine, provided we are prepared to accept that puts at risk more than $100bn of exports that will impact on the living standards of Australians. This is the problem when you try to wrap the totality of government under an umbrella of national security.” He says that over the past 10 years there have been big changes in foreign investment decision-making taking account of national security issues, and the “apparatus had shown a distinct capacity to evolve”.

Richardson oversaw among other things, the sale of Darwin Port to China's Landbridge.

Readers in Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore can consider Richardson's advice against their countries' attitude to trade with China over the past six decades.

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