Telstra has refused to rule out doing business with telecommunications supplier ZTE, which is shortlisted to build Australia’s high-speed mobile network, after claims the Chinese-based company is corrupt. Australia’s biggest telecommunications company has defended its high standards when choosing suppliers after revelations that ZTE has been involved in systemic foreign bribery and corrupt payments to government officials, but Telstra has not taken the Chinese telecommunications company off a shortlist of five companies that could build Australia’s 5G network. Telstra chief financial officer Warwick Bray said the company had noted reports about ZTE and that Telstra had “the strongest supplier governance and policies and we always review new material.” Later a Telstra spokesman refused to clarify whether the revelations about ZTE would see it scrubbed from the shortlist but did say the telecommunications company “will monitor this situation closely”.

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The Sydney Morning Herald