March 25, 2023
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation is the latest publicly-owned body to move to pull out scores of Chinese-made surveillance devices due to fears they could be operating as spyware.
In what Australian Community Media, publisher of this newspaper, understands takes the number of devices across Australian government departments and agencies to more than 1000, the ABC has advised through the Minister for Communications that 161 Hikvision and Dahua devices will be removed from its premises over the calendar year.
Most of them - 152 - have been found at the broadcaster's headquarters in Ultimo, while a system of one Hikvision DVR and three cameras is to be removed from the ABC's office in the far northern Western Australia town of Kununurra.
The ABC is also set to remove a system of one Dahua DVR and four cameras from its regional Victorian office in Wodonga.
Hundreds of installed devices, which are already restricted by the UK and United States governments, have been reported through answers to questions on notice, an informal audit by Liberal senator James Paterson.
"I'm pleased to hear the ABC is removing the very extensive array of Chinese Communist Party surveillance devices throughout their headquarters. A media outlet in a liberal democracy is the last place a Hikvision or Dahua camera should be," Senator Paterson told ACM.
The Coalition spokesperson on cyber security has been calling for a government-wide audit of the surveillance devices, suggesting it could be led by the Department of Home Affairs.
Sensitive agencies such as Defence, Foreign Affairs and the Attorney-General's Department have been found with the cameras, video recorders and other devices. Hikvision-branded devices have also been confirmed as being installed and in operation across other federal departments, including in buildings within the Treasury, Finance and Infrastructure portfolios in Canberra.
Not all agencies have notified they are removing the equipment, but those who have include the Australian War Memorial in Canberra and the Geelong head office of the National Disability Insurance Agency.
A comprehensive audit was ordered in February by Defence Minister Richard Marles across Defence and military sites after a Chinese-linked surveillance camera system was identified as being installed within at least one site.
The ABC was contacted over the cameras, but did not provide a comment before deadline.
The concerns over the Chinese-manufactured technology arose after the sale and use of equipment from several Chinese tech companies was restricted in the US and the UK.
