Foreign affairs department yet to get rid of DJI drones defence and police have already suspended

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is still using the controversial Chinese DJI drones, but has confirmed it is attempting to replace them as ‘quickly as possible’.

This photo taken on April 13, 2023 shows workers producing drones at a factory in Wuhan, in China's central Hubei province. (Photo by AFP) / China OUT

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is still using the controversial Chinese DJI drones, but has confirmed it is attempting to replace them as “quickly as possible”.

The Australian reported last month the Department of Defence suspended the use of the drones and all other products manufactured by DJI.

About 1000 DJI drones were also stripped from government properties across Australia, including 88 in federal parliamentarians’ electorate offices. The federal police and border force have also ceased using the technology, which followed DJI being blacklisted by the US earlier this year.

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade chief security officer Joe Talbot confirmed there were 13 drones being used by DFAT and a further two by Austrade. “We did do a risk assessment on those and they are not in areas which would cause us concern, specifically they are used for public diplomacy,” she told Senate estimates on Thursday.

Despite the low risk, Ms Talbot said DFAT would seek to cease using the drones because they were “products of concern”. She confirmed that, for the time being, the drones were still in use. “We do indeed have some of those devices but we’re in a process at the moment of replacing that equipment,” she said.

Ms Talbot would not put a timeframe on when the drones would be replaced.

“We need to deal with supply chain issues. We will be working as quickly as we possibly can to replace those devices,” she said.

Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said it was “not clear” how the drones could continue to be safely used by DFAT.