Malcolm Turnbull says US, Australia must develop their own 5G networks

Malcolm Turnbull says the US and Australia must develop their own 5G networks to counter China.

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull says the US and Australia must give more “urgent priority’’ to developing their own 5G networks to safeguard national security in the face of cyber attacks from China and elsewhere.

In a strongly-worded Anzac Day speech in New York today Mr Turnbull linked the defence of freedom by the ANZACs a century ago to the need to defend national security today in the cyber sphere.

He said it was “absurd’’ that neither the US or its close “five-eyes’’ allies including Australia were not more actively developing their own safe 5G alternatives to those offered by market leaders such as China’s Huawei.

“When I was prime minister I discussed this issue with President Trump and I encouraged the president to take the lead to ensure we had at least one viable and secure 5G vendor from the US and its Five Eyes partners,” Mr Turnbull said. “It is frankly absurd that in this — arguably the most important enabling technology of our time — that the US and its closest allies are not leading players.”

One of Mr Turnbull’s last acts as prime minister was to ban Chinese telco firms from participating in Australia future 5G network on the grounds that these state-owned companies could be exploited by Chinese intelligence. Australia was the first western nation to ban China from its 5G networks, a decision which was welcomed by the Trump White House.

Mr Turnbull said he was pleased to see that Mr Trump had announced this month that his administration would give priority to developing a 5G network and would not allow other nations to out-compete the US in this “industry of the future’’.

“President Trump appears to be making 5G a priority and in practical terms that will require a response form and cooperation with the telecommunications and technology sectors,” Mr Turnbull said. “It should be the highest and most urgent priority to retake American and Five Eyes leadership in this critical field.”

The Trump administration has been debating how best to encourage US industry to take a leading role in 5G and effectively shut out China in the process.

This month Mr Trump decided that such a process should be largely “private-sector driven and private-sector led’’, ignoring calls from some of his own advisers who wanted the government to play a larger role in the process.

The policy will allow US telco giants such as AT&T and Verizon to take the lead in developing and rolling out the technology.

The US has made series of ad hoc decisions in recent years which have effectively kept Chinese telco companies out of the US 5G market.

The White House is considering formal restrictions to ban all Chinese telecom companies from being involved in the US 5G network.

Cameron Stewart is also US Contributor for Sky News Australia