The removal of Chinese Communist Party-linked surveillance cameras from defence areas and federal politician's offices is important, the defence minister says, with the government directing the Australian Defence Force to complete an audit.
Almost 1000 surveillance cameras and other recording devices - some of them banned by the United States and Britain - are installed across government buildings.
In a Senate estimates hearing on Tuesday, Department of Finance officials said there were 65 offices which have Chinese-manufactured Hikvision and Dahua security cameras installed, with 45 offices yet to have the cameras removed.
Defence Minister Richard Marles said the surveillance systems were not spy cameras and that lots of technology was imported from overseas.
He said the government was taking action on the issue after it was informed.
"It's important that these cameras be removed," he told Sydney radio 2GB.
"Within Defence, all the cameras that were registered to this company that we're aware of, have been removed.
"In addition to that, I've also asked Defence to go through and do another audit so that we can be completely clear about this."
