‘Hasn’t been ruled out’: Barnaby Joyce doubles down on Telstra outage foreign interference concerns
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The news: One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce has refused to backdown on suggestions the recent Telstra outage could be due to foreign interference, such as from the Chinese government.
Speaking to Sky News on Sunday morning (AEST), Joyce said Education Minister Jason Clare did not rule it out. Clare was speaking to Sky immediately before Joyce’s appearance and he responded to questions about Joyce’s comments by saying: “Well, it pays just to take a bit of time and work out what the cause of this was”.
Telstra says the outage was caused by a node being set to an incorrect time, creating a synchronisation issue.
Joyce said that until foreign interference is ruled out it is “a reasonable question to ask” whether it was a factor.
“And at this point in time, in the most recent iteration from the federal government, it hasn’t been ruled out. Now I hope it is ruled out,” he said.
“But it is incumbent upon the government, because of the correlation of time between other events in this, to say whether they can rule it out, can’t rule it out, don’t know.”
The context: Clare has also emphatically pushed back on any suggestions that Beijing’s ballistic missile test, undertaken within 24 hours of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signing a treaty with Fiji, will deter deals between Australia and pacific nations.
Speaking on Sky News on Sunday morning (AEST), Clare said “no” when asked if it would deter Pacific nations from signing agreements with Australia.
“Good neighbours don’t shoot stuff over someone else’s house ... there’s a contest for influence in the Pacific. The prime minister has now developed agreements and alliances with Papua New Guinea and Fiji and Vanuatu and a range of other countries in the region,” he said.
“We’re working to strengthen our friendships in the Pacific.”
What they said: “The point is, you don’t make friends by firing rockets over their backyard,” Clare said.
The source: Sky News
