A federal review of the leasing of the Darwin Port to a Chinese-owned company will examine whether there was any "impropriety" in the $506 million deal, a Labor MP says.
The intensification of tensions between the Australian and the Chinese governments has seen the port remain in the political spotlight.
Following his election victory, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced a new review into the "circumstances of the port" but provided no further details about its scope.
Today, Darwin-based MP Luke Gosling said it would be a thorough assessment that provided an answer as to "how was this allowed to happen?"
"We're reviewing the information that's already come to light, the stuff that's public and the stuff that's not," Mr Gosling told Mix FM.
"And [we're reviewing] whether there was any impropriety back in 2015."
Mr Gosling said "people who have been around Darwin for a while know that there probably are some people that are a bit nervous" about the inquiry.
"But Australians deserve to know," he said.
"And more than that, Australians need to know that there's been a proper process by which a decision was made about the ongoing status of that lease over our port."
Defence Minister has not seen Coalition's port review
The former Morrison government conducted a separate review of the Darwin Port last year, when it asked the Defence Department to assess the national security implications of the arrangement.
Media reports have suggested there were no adverse findings from the review, but it has never been made public.
It was revealed yesterday that the department had rejected a Freedom of Information request from the ABC for documents relating to the review because the material was considered "classified" and subject to cabinet confidentiality.
Today, Labor Defence Minister Richard Marles said he had not seen the former government's review.
"Obviously, we are talking about advice, which was given to the former government — we don't have access to that as the current government," Mr Marles told ABC News Breakfast this morning.
Mr Marles said the government was awaiting the outcome of the latest review into the port.
"We made clear at the time, we didn't support the leasing of the port of Darwin to a Chinese government-owned company, and we had grave concerns about it at the time," he said.
"Now that we're in government we're seeking our own advice about the significance of that and what options exist and, and as soon as we receive that advice, we'll make our decisions."
Mr Albanese yesterday promised that the government's review would be publicly released.
