In October 2015 those ‘genocidal’,’communist’ Chinese (you know, the same people who were attacked by white miners because of their ability to organise as teams on the gold fields and represented by a Mongolian Octopus pictured in The Bulletin Magazine in 1886), as owners of the Landbridge Group, took out a 99-year lease on Port Darwin for A$506 million – about which the Australian capitalist media has been yapping ever since.

In September 1967 at a ceremony (the video of which used to be on YouTube but appears to have been removed) U.S. ambassador Ed Clark said laughingly to Harold Holt, then Prime Minister of Australia (showing his deep respect for both), ‘I give you one peppercorn rent’ – for what was to become a giant U.S. naval spy base.

Now that’s how to do a deal!