Opposition Leader Peter Dutton unveiled the policy in Darwin this morning, with the prime minister announcing similar intentions last night.

“I’m pleased to announce today that an elected Coalition government will move immediately to secure the Darwin Port and to make sure that we can bring that national asset, that strategic asset, back into Australian ownership,” Dutton said.

The port was leased to Landbridge, a Chinese operating company in 2015 under the Turnbull coalition government.

Today, Dutton described that move as a mistake.

“It’s clear that a mistake was made many years ago in relation to the lease,” he said.

Dutton pledged to find an Australian buyer for the port by year’s end or compulsorily acquire it at taxpayer expense.

“This is in our country’s best interest. We know we live in uncertain times and the government’s had three years to deal with this issue, they haven’t done that,” he said.

Anthony Albanese last night said the government had been working “for some time” to get the port back into Australian hands.

”If it reaches a point where the Commonwealth needs to directly intervene, then we’d be prepared to do that.”

Albanese also criticised the port’s sale in 2015.

“That was a direct result of the program introduced by the Abbott government in its 2014 budget of asset recycling, which provided an incentive for state and territory governments to flog off our assets, infrastructure assets,” he said.