Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull's recent memoir clearly shows that there was no "smoking gun" to ban Chinese telecommunications equipment vendor Huawei Technologies from bidding for participation in Australia's 5G networks, the legal firm XenophonDavis says.

Mystery surrounds the fact that Telstra, one of the Australian corporations most concerned about its mentions in the media, did not notice that its name was mentioned by iTWire as a sponsor of the defence lobby group Australian Strategic Policy Institute on at least four occasions [1, 2, 3, 4] even though it had ended its sponsorship of the organisation at the end of June 2019.

In a clear case of the pot calling the kettle black, former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, who is investing in a security company known as Kasada which has taken money from In-Q-Tel, the investment arm of the CIA, is calling for former Independent senator Nick Xenophon to enter his name on Australia's foreign influence register because he is offering legal advice to Chinese firm Huawei.

Former Independent senator Nick Xenophon has accused both Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson and local telco Telstra of "engaging in Olympic class word games" to avoid an inconvenient truth: their 5G equipment is being manufactured in China with a joint-venture partner cited by the US as being under the thumb of the People's Liberation Army.

The name of Australia's number one telco, Telstra Corporation, has suddenly gone missing from the list of sponsors of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

Former Independent senator Nick Xenophon has put the cat among the pigeons, pointing out that while Chinese vendor Huawei has been banned from supplying gear to the 5G networks, Telstra, which gets its 5G gear from a joint-venture arrangement between Ericsson and Panda Electronics, faces no such strictures.

It now appears to be perfectly clear what kind of public broadcaster the Coalition Government wants: a pliant set of robots who scrape and curtsy every time their glorious masters are sighted. Something more in the style of India's Doordarshan and All India Radio.

Back in February, when Huawei Australia said it would hold public forums across the country to "let ordinary Australians make up their own minds about the company" there was little indication that these would be reduced to Zoom meetings – and with no coffee in sight!

One of the partners of a law firm that has been appointed by Chinese telecommunications equipment vendor Huawei Technologies, as a strategic counsel "to defend the company locally against malicious and false attacks designed to cause us reputational damage", says there are no plans to take anyone to court over criticism of the company.

ABC journalists' ignorance of technology has been on display once again, with senior broadcaster Patricia Karvelas displaying an acute lack of knowledge during an interview with former senator Nick Xenophon, whose legal firm has been hired by Huawei to help correct misconceptions about its operations.

The two biggest parasites in the digital world, Facebook and Google, have offered a sop to online publishers: we will allow the free articles of yours, that we exploit to make our money, offer a means of subscribing to your publications.

A senior member of the Australian Senate has accused Google of misleading one of its committees about the extent of the search company's earnings in Australia.

The Turnbull government has finally responded to the recommendations of the Senate Economics Reference Committee which looked into the 2016 census debacle, saying that it would not accept making the submission of names voluntary through a legislative amendment.

The activist group GetUp has welcomed the decision to set up a Senate inquiry into the government's attempt to reclaim money from welfare recipients.

Seven Australian senators have said they will not provide their names when they fill up their census forms tonight.

A former head of the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Bill McLennan, says the ABS has no authority to demand that people supply their names in the forthcoming census to be conducted in August.

Australian now has one of the most draconian mass surveillance regimes in the Western world. Yesterday the Senate passed the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment (Data Retention) Bill 2014.

A group led by three senators will gather at Parliament House today to protest against the Government’s plans to force telcos and ISPs to store customer data.

The news that Senator Nick Xenophon has decided to act like a true independent and intends to hold the Government to account over the NBN will come as a refreshing change to many who are astounded that so-called independents in the Australian Parliament are prepared to allow important legislation to be rammed through without adequate scrutiny. The question now is whether the Government is prepared to accede to the Senator's request that it lifts the veil on the NBN business plan and if not, then what?

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has survived a gag order in the Senate that would have halted any consideration of NBN-related matters - and stopped the Minister even addressing the issue - until he tabled a series of documents related to the fibre roll-out.