Victoria promised to pressure and release its Belt to Road Initiative agreement as experts warn that it is unconstitutional. The state is known to be the first in Australia to sign up to the global trade and infrastructure program of Chinese president Xi Jinping.
The Belt and Roan Initiative is a four-page memorandum of agreement stating that Victoria and China will cooperatively inject new momentum to achieve development beneficial to both parties and promote connectivity of polices infrastructures, trade, finance, and their people.
The agreement also promotes the development of long-term partnerships of businesses and organizations on both sides. They are expected to enhance policy cooperation and continuous trade. The agreement will end after five years and it is without legal binding.
Peter Jennings, the director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, was alarmed that Victoria was not able to foresee the constitutionality of the agreement following the federal government's decline to sign up. He expressed his opinion saying that it is wrong for a state government to sign something like the agreement since it might even be unconstitutional. He added that it may not be tested but it strikes him as something the Victorians would have been wiser not to agree to.
According to him, the agreement might be viewed as a form of an inappropriate "political interference" by China. He also said that Victoria didn't get the answer they wanted from one jurisdiction and they went to another one which undermined the federal government's position.
Jennings claims that it is now a trend for state leaders to go over to China with dollar signs rolling in their eyes only thinking of how much money they can make from the engagement. He is hopeful that other state leaders won't follow Victoria agreement with China.
Prof Rory Medcalf, an Australian National University academic, also said that the Belt to Road Initiative agreement pushes the boundaries of the Australian constitution. He said that it is hard to see the point of the whole exercise in terms of the interests of the state of Victoria and the Australian national interest. He added that the agreement contains an uncritical endorsement of everything that occurs under the rubric of Belt and Road and it does hand a propaganda win to China in its own differences with the Australian government over the issue.
Australia's federal government and those who oppose the agreement makes their effort to keep the agreement at arm's length. They said that they will look at cooperating on projects on merit.
