Australia has banned Chinese technology giant Huawei from bidding to help build a nationwide high-speed Internet network due to concern about cyber attacks traced to China.
New Zealand security agencies warned Prime Minister John Key in 2010 there was no guarantee New Zealand's broadband infrastructure would not be compromised if Huawei was awarded the contract, Labour's Clare Curran claimed in Parliament yesterday.
She has been questioning Mr Key on Huawei's involvement since last week when it
was revealed Australia banned the Chinese telco last year from tendering for its broadband network because of concerns about potential cyber attacks.
Most of the time Mr Key has been refusing to answer questions on the basis that he never answers questions about security briefings and initially stuck to that position yesterday.
Then Clare Curran asked: "Did he read the report he received from security agencies in 2010, and did it say there were no mitigation measures that would totally counteract the compromising of our broadband infrastructure should Huawei be given the contract?" Mr Key replied that he would have read that report, although it was a couple of years ago.
He went on to defend Huawei, saying not only was it one of the three major suppliers of broadband infrastructure equipment in the world, alongside Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson, it operated in Australia, the United States, Britain, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan.
