Port of Newcastle says security not a problem as Chinese ownership of Darwin port flares again

QUESTIONS OF INCLUENCE: The Port of Newcastle is 50 per cent owned by China Merchants Port Holdings, which supplies three of the board's seven directors.

CHINESE financial interests in Australian ports are again under the microscope after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he would release the results of a review into the 2015 lease of the Port of Darwin to Chinese company Landbridge.

But an existing national security review of the Darwin lease - and by implication a separate 2018 review of another Chinese company's half-stake in the Port of Newcastle - are being kept under wraps by Defence officials against Freedom of Information requests by the ABC.