There isn't much on or near Daru Island, including fish.

As Jeff Wall, a long time adviser to the PNG Government, wrote in the Australian Strategic Policy Institute's publication The Strategist this week, 'The town of Daru is the closest PNG community to Australia. Even though it is around 200 kilometres from the Australian mainland, it is very close to the islands of the Torres Strait that are within our northern border.'

Wall noted that there was little doubt the MOU with China's Fujian Zhonghong Fishery Company project was sponsored directly by the Chinese government as it was announced 'By China's Ministry of Commerce, supported by Beijing's powerful ambassador in Port Moresby, Xue Bing, who declared that the investment 'Will definitely enhance PNG's ability to comprehensively develop and utilise its own fishery resources'.'

Fears operation will 'Vacuum everything up'

Federal MP Warren Entsch, whose electorate covers the Torres Strait, is just one figure in Canberra most alarmed at the development, and who questions why you would build such a huge fishing operation in a place where there aren't a lot of fish.

He says there is currently an under-utilised mackerel fishery, a bit of trout and some lobsters.

The fishing rights in the Torres Strait are shared under a treaty between Australia and PNG and Entsch says the fishery has been well managed to avoid over-fishing.

His concern is that a big Chinese fishing operation would "just come in and vacuum everything up", putting at risk, apart from anything else, the subsistence living of many of the locals.

The Guardian noted last month that Chinese fishing fleets have devastated local fish stocks in other parts of the world.

"In August, just off the Galapagos Islands, an armada of nearly 300 Chinese vessels logged 73,000 hours of fishing in a month, hauling in thousands of tonnes of squid and fish," it wrote.

Entsch believes the issue is on the radar of Foreign Minister Marise Payne, but he has been unable to see her to discuss it since the deal was announced a few weeks ago.

Of course, there may just be a few more strategic reasons than fish involved in the Chinese building a massive port just to the north of Australia.

But even if it were not to become a major naval base for the Chinese military, the idea of a large Chinese fishing fleet in the region poses big problems for Australia.

There is already a substantial Border Force presence in the Torres Strait, based out of Thursday Island, which focuses on illegal fishing (until now particularly by Indonesian fisherman) and on stopping the importation of drugs and other contraband from PNG to northern Australia.

It is part of Operation Resolute, which is the defence contribution to patrolling Australia's Exclusive Economic Zone.

'It will hardly be ideal for the Australian Border Force'

The prospects of encounters, and the complexities of policing the Strait are about to become a lot more complicated.

As Wall, says, "if the project goes ahead, it's reasonable to assume that Chinese fishing boats will be active in the seas around Daru, and in the Torres Strait".

"They may use fishermen from Daru and elsewhere in Fly River Province, something the Chinese ambassador was clearly alluding to.

"It will hardly be ideal for the Australian Border Force, which patrols the strait, to have to decide which fishing boats and crew are actually from PNG and which might be fronts for Chinese operators from the 'multi-faceted' facility."

Wall says that PNG, which was one of the last countries in the region to sign a BRI agreement with China in 2018, is now the scene of intense activity, with China involved in negotiating around $3 billion of contracts for roads in the poverty stricken nation.

Australia has obviously and belatedly recognised the threat that PNG's vulnerability represents: hence our own recent decision to upgrade Manus Island to a naval base.

Investment surely raises questions

A $200 million "fishery" investment in an area not known for an abundance of fish but strategically as close to Australia as you can get, surely raises questions about the real agenda.

It seems unlikely that the deal can be stopped. As a sovereign country, PNG would hardly be happy about Australia telling it what deals it can do, or reneg upon.

Daru is the capital of the so-called Western province of PNG, which is particularly poor, and particularly poorly served by the government in Port Moresby.

There has been considerable aid poured into the area over the years by Australia.

But, just as our relationship with China unravels, the Daru proposal shows how we must seriously escalate our efforts to assist the economic development of poor nations in our region who are so rightly lured by the spectre of massive dollars from Beijing.

Story By | Laura Tingle