Response to The Australian article about Huawei
Today The Australian carries a story by Cameron Stewart stating that I was briefed by ASIO about the Government’s decision to ban Huawei from participating in the NBN project on national security grounds.
The Australian suggests that this is at odds with my comment “Having said that, we have not been privy to the security intelligence advice that the government has had. We will review that decision in the light of all the advice in the event of us coming into government. That’s as far as I can go.”
I have not hitherto publicly confirmed or denied that I have been briefed by ASIO but I note Julie Bishop has confirmed she was briefed by ASIO and as it happens I was present at the same briefing.
ASIO did not provide us with the full advice it had given to the Government. This was not surprising. Opposition briefings are very rarely, if ever, as complete as those given to the Government of the day and as a consequence the responsible approach for us to take was simply to state that if we formed a Government we would review the decision in the light of the complete advice and intelligence material that is inevitably only available to the Government of the day.
13 Responses to “Response to The Australian article about Huawei”
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Will we ever get over our paranoia about the Chinese? Business is business. Government is government. If overseas governments want to invest in our infrastructure I see no problem as long as they are minority shareholders in any venture.
We’re lucky you’re not in charge, then, Don.
[...] Stewart’s article has already provoked a response from Turnbull this morning. In a statement published on his website, Turnbull acknowledged that he had been briefed by ASIO on the situation – but that his original [...]
Surely Cameron Stewart’s time would be far better spent holding the current Federal Government to account, rather than a spurious article about a non-issue? This ‘exclusive’ piece is a total waste of time and adds nothing to the media’s role in provoking meaningful public debate about the important issues of the day.
More lies Malcolm, lol. You are becoming renowned for just being a lying little bitch.. lol. Maybe try cutting your tongue out that should help. hahahahaha
[...] has fired back on his personal blog, though, saying that while he was present at the meeting with Bishop, ASIO didn’t reveal [...]
Turnbull’s response is entirely reasonable and entirely professional.
Isn’t it a waste of time, answering critics whose political comprehension skills are those of a child who, with nothing better to do, can always catch out a schoolteacher contradicting himself in some inconsequential way, because it’s easier than thinking about the substance of what was said.
As the English like to say, “Never explain, never apologize.” It sounds like snobbery and aloofness, until you actually try explaining an inconsequential misunderstanding to someone like Aaron, above (September 28 at 4:58 pm), and you realize life is too short to spend it feeding a hunger of theirs that has no limit.
Hahaha, just call it as i see it James, try defending the indefencable you will have more luck there.
The guys tells more lies than anyone i can think of in recent times does more backflips than a gymnast and is more misleading with his statements and comments than a criminal trying to lie his way out of prison.
Malcolm is a (Tony’s) dog. He should resign and resign today.
The comment that really does need explanation is this one by Senator Conroy in New York recently:
“The regulation of telecommunications powers in Australia is exclusively federal. That means I am in charge of spectrum auctions, and if I say to everyone in this room, ‘If you want to bid in our spectrum auction you’d better wear red underpants on your head,’ I’ve got some news for you. You’ll be wearing them on your head … I have unfettered legal power.”
Without the red-underwear joke, and in context, it could have just been a statement of Australia’s regulatory efficiency and bargaining strength in a discussion about international cable connections (which appears to be a potential weakness in the economics of the whole NBN project).
But by choosing such a colourful, vulgar, and humiliating sort of joke to underscore his point, I think Conroy revealed a lot about his own character and his attitude to power.
By itself, you could write it off as a bad moment – we all have them, we all behave out of character sometimes.
But Conroy is also one of the ALP powerbrokers who toppled Kevin Rudd; his aggressive behaviour in Senate Estimates is sometimes way over the top; and his refusal to allow even the most basic due diligence for spending $35 or $40 billion dollars of taxpayers’ money, are all examples of the same arrogance.
He sneers at anyone who even questions the untested claim, not that it will generate wealth (of course it will), but that the amount of wealth it generates will be greater than the cost of the project — with the difference to be made up in unavoidable user charges by a government-owned monopoly, which is just another kind of tax.
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