June 1, 2023
Hundreds of Chinese-made surveillance cameras have been found at defence sites across Australia, well above the initial estimate of just one.
Defence officials appearing at senate estimates on Wednesday revealed an audit process had found 435 devices made by Chinese companies Hikvision and Dahua at its sites.
In February, defence said they were aware of just one system at one site, but at the time Defence Minister Richard Marles said he had asked the department to engage in a further audit, “just to make sure we’ve not missed any”.
“If there are any, they will be removed,” Mr Marles said at the time.
The initial revelation came in response to questions put by Liberal senator, and now opposition spokesman for foreign interference, James Paterson.
Senator Paterson at the time voiced his concern that the Australian government used the devices, because under Chinese national security law the Chinese Communist Party could request any of the surveillance material to be handed over.
In grilling officials on Wednesday, Senator Paterson queried how many had been discovered as part of the audit.
Celia Perkins, the deputy secretary responsible for security and estate, said there had been a significant increase in response to Mr Marle’s “detailed physical audit” order.
“As we did that work, we found additional devices by manufacturers of concern. The total number of devices was 435,” she said.
“We removed as many of them as we could immediately. Sometimes they were in locations where we needed specialists, and in some cases, we needed to leave them on for work health and safety or other reasons.”
She said defence was now working through a process of completely removing the devices from all sites and the department was on track to have that “completed” by June 30.
Senator Paterson, who had been posing the questions in estimates, said he found the increase “extraordinary”.
In response, Ms Perkins said the defence estate, which comprised lower risk sites like coffee points and daycare centres, was “a vast and complex thing”.
