Businessman Ian Gowrie-Smith, who is the owner of the islands named the Conflict Islands near Australia, said that it could be sold to China as he had received no response from the Australian government.
Without purchasing the Conflict Islands, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has told local media that Australia is doing more than enough to compete with China.
The islands, which the present owner has threatened to sell to Beijing, are made up of 21 coral atolls and are situated between Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, off the eastern coast of Australia.
Albanese stated that Australian taxpayers were not in a position to purchase every island in that region—more than 500 in total—just to prevent China from acquiring any of the Conflicts.
Plus, it would set a terrible precedent. “If sellers of assets came through the media [to] say, 'I want Australia to buy this or else there's implications, we'll sell it to China', think about where that ends, in terms of taxpay...
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