Prime Minister Anthony Albanese dialled into a Darwin radio station on Friday afternoon to announce plans to find a new owner for the city's port as coalition members were en route to the Northern Territory for an election announcement on Saturday.
Details of the coalition's plan were published by News Corp shortly after Mr Albanese dialled in to ABC Radio Darwin.
A coalition government would recruit a specialist adviser to find a new operator for the port and would move to buy the lease back if one could not be found within six months, News Corp reported.
Mr Albanese's plan was light on details but he indicated Labor was similarly prepared to use taxpayer funds if a private buyer could not be found.
"We want it to be in Australian hands ... we're prepared to go down the road of taxpayer direct involvement," he said.
The port has been a point of concern for almost a decade since it was leased to Chinese-owned Landbridge Group in 2015 for more than $500 million.
The concerns have mainly focused on national security threats, but Mr Albanese said economic reasons were also a factor in the plan for it to be brought back into Australian hands.
"Landbridge have not had the investment into the port that's required to bring it up to scratch," he said.
He promised details ahead of the May 3 poll and insisted it was not an election stunt.
"It's something that we have had a consistent view on ... we opposed it at the time (it was leased)," he told ABC Radio.
Multiple reviews in recent years found insufficient grounds to overturn the lease based on national security.
But Landbridge has indicated it was willing to offload it for $1.3 billion according to media reports in February, later disputed by company director Terry O'Connor.
Mr Albanese said the government had been involved in discussions with the Northern Territory and "separate discussions".
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