Huawei: Australia law could exclude China firms

 By ROD McGUIRK - Associated Press - Friday, September 14, 2012

“It singles out certain foreign technology and service suppliers and then alludes almost a country-of-origin connection,” he said.

“There is an opportunity there for legislation to be used wrongly and to limit participation and competition,” Lord said.

Lord said the government had never explained its reasons for banning Huawei late last year from working on its 4.6 billion Australian dollar ($4.9 billion) rollout of a fiber optic network that will be among the world’s fastest.

“We were disappointed we were not given a chance to answer any concerns that may have led to that decision,” Lord said.

The government has confirmed the decision was made on security grounds, but has refused to elaborate.

David Wang, Huawei’s director of business development in Australia, told the committee the Australian government had initially invited Huawei to tender. Huawei was officially told it was on a short list of two before it was banned, Wang said.