Huawei hits back at Turnbull's 'inappropriate' cyber attack claims

Chinese telecommunications equipment maker Huawei has hit back at former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull's claim that a recent increase in cyber attacks against Australia justified its exclusion from building 5G networks, saying it was both inaccurate and inappropriate.

Mr Turnbull made comments in an interview with The Australian Financial Review about his investment and board position at start-up cyber security vendor Kasada, linking Prime Minister Scott Morrison's announcement of a "sophisticated state-based actor" targeting Australian companies to Huawei's ban.

"In the not quite two years since my government made the decision to keep high-risk vendors out of 5G in Australia, [that] has been proved to be the right call,” Mr Turnbull said.

Huawei's chief corporate affairs officer, Jeremy Mitchell, said Mr Turnbull's comments were unjust and that the company had a "spotlessly clean" record on cyber security over its 16 years operating in Australia with network operators such as TPG, Vodafone and Optus.

He accused the former prime minister of hypocrisy in his public comments, saying Mr Turnbull had been privately supportive of Huawei in his stint as both communications minister and Opposition communications spokesman, specifying his support in advancing its case in delivering technology to operators like Openreach in the UK, and being a guest at its company headquarters in Shenzhen.

"It is completely inappropriate for Mr Turnbull to claim – as reported in the AFR – that the recent cyber attacks on Australia by a so far unnamed foreign country justify the 5G ban on Huawei in Australia," Mr Mitchell said.

"It is bad enough that Mr Turnbull based his 5G ban on inaccurate technical advice on 5G network architecture but even worse that he now further maligns our name by reportedly associating us with cyber attacks that have nothing to do with our company."

In a statement, Mr Mitchell quoted a passage from Mr Turnbull's recently released autobiography, which he said contradicted the comments he had now made by admitting that the 5G ban was not based on any actions Huawei had undertaken.

"That didn’t mean we thought Huawei was currently being used to interfere with our telecommunications networks ... Our approach was a hedge against a future threat: not the identification of a smoking gun but a loaded one,” the passage reads.

Earlier this year, Huawei commissioned a report that found its ban from providing equipment to 5G networks in Australia would cost $11.9 billion in lost GDP gains by 2035.