February 9, 2023
An audit has revealed almost 1,000 units of surveillance equipment by controversial Chinese government-linked companies Hikvision and Dahua are installed across more than 250 sites of Commonwealth departments and agencies.
In answers to Questions on Notice I lodged in September 2022 the Department of Home Affairs was unable to say how many surveillance cameras, access control systems and intercoms were installed in Commonwealth departments and agencies that were manufactured by Hikvision or Dahua.
In response I launched an audit of all federal agencies which shows alarming exposure to these risky products.
ASIO Director General Mike Burgess has said the data collected by Hikvision and Dahua cameras “and where it would end up and what else it could be used for would be of great concern to me and my agency.” UK government Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner Fraser Sampson has labelled these cameras as “digital asbestos.” Both Hikvision and Dahua have been directly implicated in shocking human rights abuses and mass surveillance of Uyghur minorities in Xinjiang in partnership with the Chinese Communist Party.
Our AUKUS partners and closest security allies, the United States and UK, announced in November 2022 that they were banning the devices from all government buildings because of the national security threat that they pose.
So far, the Australian government has announced no plan to do so, although some government departments and agencies including the National Disability Insurance Agency and the Australian War Memorial have pledged to remove the devices from their sites.
Concerningly, the Department of Defence was not able to say for certain how many devices were installed at Defence sites, and pledged to remove any identified as part of a current physical assessment underway.
We urgently need a plan from the Albanese government to rip every one of these devices out of Australian government departments and agencies.
