Former Asio boss accuses Liberal senator of ‘grubby’ attack over Huawei comments

One of Australia's most respected former public servants, Dennis Richardson, has accused Liberal senator James Paterson of engaging in a "grubby" and "despicable" attempt to blacken his name over comments Paterson made in an interview on Sky News.

Paterson, the chair of federal parliament's powerful committee on intelligence and security, argued in the interview on Thursday that Richardson, the former head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, had publicly advocated in 2018 that the Chinese telco Huawei should be involved in the Australian 5G rollout.

Paterson described Richardson as a "distinguished" former public servant.

But the Liberal senator told Sky News the government's decision to exclude Huawei from the 5G rollout was "one of the best decisions our government has made - and I stand by it even if Dennis Richardson disagrees".

Paterson's critique followed Richardson contending in a series of interviews on Thursday morning that the Morrison government was serving China's interests, not Australia's, by politicising national security ahead of the election, and "seeking to create the perception of a difference [between the major parties] when none in practice exists".

The unusual intervention carried weight. During his long career in the public sector, Richardson was secretary of the departments of foreign affairs and defence, as well as the Asio boss, and Australia's ambassador to Washington.

The latter two appointments occurred during the Howard government.

Richardson told Guardian Australia back when he was the secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the government considered whether or not Huawei would be involved in the 4G network.

"I was on the secretaries committee on national security which recommended against Huawei's involvement in 4G," the retired bureaucrat said. "I was not in government in 2018. And I challenge James Paterson to come up with any evidence that I advocated for Huawei's unmitigated involvement in 5G.

"Given that I was on the secretaries committee on national security that recommended against Huawei being involved in 4G, on what basis I would have advocated for Huawei being in 5G is beyond me."

Richardson said he had made a comment in the media that the United Kingdom "had negotiated a deal with Huawei that enabled them to be in part involved in non-sensitive areas".

"However the Brits subsequently overturned that. So James Paterson is being loose with the truth by a long margin. He ought to check his facts and get them right before he makes public comments about individuals."

It was reported at the time that Richardson suggested that Australia should follow the UK's lead and establish a cyber-security unit to manage risks and safeguard Australia's national interest, rather than banning the Chinese company outright.

"If Huawei has 5G technology [and] if they're the only telecommunications company with it, I think it would be a shame if we did not seek to take advantage of that, but in a way that safeguarded our own national interest by perhaps looking more closely at what the UK has done," Richardson said in 2018, according to a report in the Financial Review.

On Sky News on Thursday, Paterson also noted that it had been publicly reported that in 2011, when Richardson was secretary of Dfat, he went on leave "to negotiate on behalf of the Canberra Raiders a lucrative sponsorship agreement from Huawei for the Canberra Raiders".

Richardson rejected that. He said he was involved in one presentation at board level, and took half a day's leave without pay to attend that event, but: "I never negotiated with Huawei their sponsorship of the Canberra raiders.

"That is a claim that was put in a letter to the editor in the Canberra Times a couple of years ago which I refuted. Indeed, it was stated in the Canberra Times that I'd taken six weeks leave to negotiate this deal with Huawei, and as I pointed out in my response, I have never taken six weeks leave in my life, let alone taking six weeks leave to negotiate a deal with Huawei."

Richardson said the history recounted by Paterson was selective. "At the time we got that sponsorship from Huawei, no-one other than [former Liberal foreign affairs minister] Alexander Downer was on the board of Huawei - right?"

"Alexander Downer was on the board of Huawei, and might I also add that in 2011, when I went to Senate estimates and was questioned by none other than the good senator [Eric] Abetz, who asked me about whether I had done this and that about Huawei, I told him what I'd done, and I said if you think I've done anything wrong, go to the public service board, go to the police, go to whomever you like.

"He never pursued it. I subsequently deliberately accepted an invitation from Huawei to go to a match of the state of origin in Sydney." Richardson said other guests of Huawei at that match included a federal liberal staffer and a senior Liberal from the NSW party.

"If they want to cast aspersions, then bring it on. It is grubby and it is an attempt to blacken people's names.

"It is despicable for them to want to engage in this sort of innuendo. The first thing they should do is get their facts right - that would help. To say that I advocated for Huawei's involvement in 5G in 2018 is not even half true. It is extraordinarily misleading and it flies in the face of what happened in 2011."

The escalating brawl between Liberal politicians and members of the national security establishment follows days of intensifying partisan contention over national security. Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton have spent much of the parliamentary week declaring that China wants the Labor party to win the looming federal election.

The hyper-partisanship culminated in Morrison on Wednesday branding Labor's deputy leader, Richard Marles, a "Manchurian candidate" - an observation he later withdrew. The phrase "Manchurian candidate" refers to a politician being used as a puppet by an enemy power.

On Wednesday night, the current Asio chief Mike Burgess also declared the weaponisation of national security was "not helpful to us". Paterson said on Thursday Burgess's comments had been "over-interpreted".

The Labor leader Anthony Albanese returned fire on Thursday seizing on comments made by Richardson to the ABC.

"What is unusual in this case is that the government is seeking to create the perception of a difference between it and the opposition on a critical national security issue, that is China - seeking to create the perception of a difference when none in practise exists," Richardson had told the ABC.

"That's not in the national interest. That only serves the interests of one country, and that is China."

Albanese used Richardson's criticism of the politicisation to turn Morrison's insult back on him. Gesturing in Morrison's direction in the chamber, Albanese declared after question time: "If you are looking for a Manchurian candidate, he sits over there."