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Huawei director says no concerns raised

The Australian government has never raised issues with the business of Chinese telecoms giant Huawei, company director John Brumby says.

Huawei company director John Brumby
An Australian director of Huawei says the government hasn't raised issues with the telecoms giant. (AAP)

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Source: AAP


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An Australian director of Huawei says no one in government has ever formally or informally suggested there were issues with the Chinese communications giant.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott ruled out last week overturning the Labor government's ban on Huawei tendering for work on the national broadband network.

The ban is understood to relate to security advice from Australian intelligence agencies, but Huawei has insisted it has no ties to the Chinese state.

Mr Abbott's decision came despite cabinet members, including Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Trade Minister Andrew Robb, believing the Labor policy should be reviewed.

Huawei director and former Victorian premier John Brumby said the company respected any government's right to make decisions about which companies they used and did not use.

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But he said the decision was "disappointing", given that Huawei was involved in eight of nine national broadband networks being built around the world.

The company was soon to be the world's biggest telecommunications carrier and 50 per cent of Australians used a Huawei product rebadged for other telcos such as Telstra, Vodafone and Optus.

"From all of the discussions our company has had at all levels of government, past and present, and all levels of the public service and at all levels of agencies - formally and informally - no one ... has ever suggested there is any issue with our business," Mr Brumby told the National Press Club on Wednesday.

He said Huawei did not depend on having a role in the NBN to be a successful business and it was in Australia "for the long haul".

The fall in the price of mobile phones and phone bills was due in large part to the global competition that Huawei had generated, he said.


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