❓ Mrs. Harvey questions the Premier's handling of the Huawei contract, alleging he downplayed concerns and misled the house. The Premier defends the contract, citing due diligence, security advice, and criticizes the opposition's stance and connections to Huawei.
AnsweredQoN 11Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS —
HUAWEI
11. Mrs L.M. HARVEY to the Premier:
I have a supplementary question.
(1) Why does the
Premier continue to downplay the concerns with this contract and continue to
claim that this is just a train telephone system when he was advised on 2 July
last year that it is so much more?
(2) Why does he
continue to mislead the house about his knowledge of the other components of
this contract?
HUAWEI
11. Mrs L.M. HARVEY to the Premier:
I have a supplementary question.
(1) Why does the
Premier continue to downplay the concerns with this contract and continue to
claim that this is just a train telephone system when he was advised on 2 July
last year that it is so much more?
(2) Why does he
continue to mislead the house about his knowledge of the other components of
this contract?
AnswerView source ↗
(1)–(2) The
member for Scarborough clearly does not understand. There are two contracts;
the previous government separated them. In fact, there is only one contract.
The previous government separated out any consideration of automatic train
control and entered into the radio system replacement project.
A tender process went out and the
winning bidder is the winning bidder. We sought security advice. The opposition
seems to think that there should have been some political interference by the
government to overturn a tender process and the advice of ASIO. That seems to
be the opposition's position.
Mr A. Krsticevic interjected.
The SPEAKER : Member for
Carine!
Mr M. McGOWAN : The member for Scarborough is promoting
a very odd position. It is also very odd that she is sitting next to the Leader
of the Opposition, who is a foreign citizen with a tax bill to a foreign
government! Seriously! Does the member not think that the opposition has a few
issues? The Minister for Transport raised Hon Jim Chown, the opposition's
security expert in the upper house. I have a copy of his parliamentary travel
report from when he visited Huawei. It states —
I
accepted an invitation from the Australia Chinese Business Council � and Huawei
Australia to visit China —
Mrs L.M. Harvey : Who else was
on the trip?
Mr M. McGOWAN : Paul Miles
was!
Dr D.J. Honey interjected.
The SPEAKER : Member for
Cottesloe!
Mr M. McGOWAN : It continues —
(Shenzhen and Shanghai). Founded in China,
Huawei is world leader in the field of ICT, achieving revenue of approximately
USD 46.5 billion in 2014 and USD 28.3 billion this calendar year. It holds the
current and achievable vision of being the first to revolutionise ICT
infrastructure to 5G, while concurrently strengthening cybersecurity.
Hon Jim Chown has done a backflip,
one would have to say, considering what he said the other day in the paper
compared with the report that he tabled in Parliament.
The government has gone through
every proper process and every bit of due diligence that would be expected in
relation to this. It has done everything it could conceivably do to protect the
public interest, including getting the agreement of the federal government and
consultation with the Prime Minister's office and the home affairs
minister's office. If members opposite want to criticise the Prime
Minister and Peter Dutton, be my guest.
member for Scarborough clearly does not understand. There are two contracts;
the previous government separated them. In fact, there is only one contract.
The previous government separated out any consideration of automatic train
control and entered into the radio system replacement project.
A tender process went out and the
winning bidder is the winning bidder. We sought security advice. The opposition
seems to think that there should have been some political interference by the
government to overturn a tender process and the advice of ASIO. That seems to
be the opposition's position.
Mr A. Krsticevic interjected.
The SPEAKER : Member for
Carine!
Mr M. McGOWAN : The member for Scarborough is promoting
a very odd position. It is also very odd that she is sitting next to the Leader
of the Opposition, who is a foreign citizen with a tax bill to a foreign
government! Seriously! Does the member not think that the opposition has a few
issues? The Minister for Transport raised Hon Jim Chown, the opposition's
security expert in the upper house. I have a copy of his parliamentary travel
report from when he visited Huawei. It states —
I
accepted an invitation from the Australia Chinese Business Council � and Huawei
Australia to visit China —
Mrs L.M. Harvey : Who else was
on the trip?
Mr M. McGOWAN : Paul Miles
was!
Dr D.J. Honey interjected.
The SPEAKER : Member for
Cottesloe!
Mr M. McGOWAN : It continues —
(Shenzhen and Shanghai). Founded in China,
Huawei is world leader in the field of ICT, achieving revenue of approximately
USD 46.5 billion in 2014 and USD 28.3 billion this calendar year. It holds the
current and achievable vision of being the first to revolutionise ICT
infrastructure to 5G, while concurrently strengthening cybersecurity.
Hon Jim Chown has done a backflip,
one would have to say, considering what he said the other day in the paper
compared with the report that he tabled in Parliament.
The government has gone through
every proper process and every bit of due diligence that would be expected in
relation to this. It has done everything it could conceivably do to protect the
public interest, including getting the agreement of the federal government and
consultation with the Prime Minister's office and the home affairs
minister's office. If members opposite want to criticise the Prime
Minister and Peter Dutton, be my guest.
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