State government’s decision to sign up to initiative could be unconstitutional, experts warn
The Victorian government has bowed to pressure and released its agreement with China on the Belt and Road initiative as experts warn that the decision to sign on could be unconstitutional.
The state is the first in Australia to sign up to the Chinese president Xi Jinping’s signature global trade and infrastructure program, earning a rebuke from the prime minister, Scott Morrison .
The four-page memorandum of understanding states Victoria and China will work together to “inject new momentum” to achieve common development and promote connectivity of policy, infrastructure, trade, finance and people.
Businesses and organisations on both sides will develop long-term partnerships, the document says. The parties will enhance policy cooperation and “unimpeded trade”. The agreement is not legally binding and expires in five years.
Labor insiders have been quick to play down the agreement as being a “series of motherhood statements” that doesn’t commit to anything specific.
But the Australian Strategic Policy Institute director, Peter Jennings, is alarmed that Victoria may have overstepped the mark, after the federal government declined to sign up.
“My take on it is it was wrong for a state government to sign something like this – it might even be unconstitutional,” Jennings told Guardian Australia.
“It may not be tested, of course, but it strikes me as something the Victorians would have been wiser not to agree to.
