Andrew Robb comes out in defence of his host, Huawei

One of those tsk, tsk moments....

National Times 28 March 2012:

The opposition finance spokesman, Andrew Robb, has stood by his comments blasting the government for blocking the Chinese telecommunications equipment company, Huawei, from tendering for work with the National Broadband Network, despite the government decision being based on advice from the security agency, ASIO.

Excerpt from Australian Opposition Finance Spokesperson Andrew Robb’s Declaration of Member’s Interests dated 23 January 2012:

UPDATE

The Australian 29 March 2012:

BRITAIN'S intelligence services were forced to erect a costly, resource-intensive auditing structure to ensure Huawei did not steal secrets after the Chinese telco was allowed to take part in a British broadband project.
As Foreign Minister Bob Carr moved to soothe tensions with Beijing, encouraging Huawei to expand its commercial operations in Australia in lieu of lucrative National Broadband Network contracts, the country's top signals intelligence expert, Des Ball, said yesterday there was "no doubt" Huawei partnered with China's espionage services.
Professor Ball, of Australian National University, said officers from Britain's Government Communications Headquarters, the country's top signals intelligence agency, had told him they had to check all the servers, routers, chips and hardware installed by Huawei after the company was allowed to take part in a large-scale broadband project in Britain. "And they still don't have any guarantee they picked everything up," he said....

Perhaps, Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop needs to check the software which came with that Media Pad Huawei Technologies (Aust) gave her as a gift earlier this year.