Australian Independent MP Andrew Wilkie on June 2 called on the Department of Defence to explain why it extended its contract with a foreign-owned data storage company to house sensitive government and strategic data for another five years, despite initial intentions to end the lease arrangement by September 2020. Amid increasing geostrategic competition in the Indo-Pacific, fueled by an increasingly expansionist and aggressive Beijing and onshore cyberattacks in recent months, Wilkie called for the immediate termination of all Australian government contracts with foreign-owned data storage firms. This includes Global Switch, the Chinese-owned firm based in Sydney that houses sensitive government data, including for Australia’s domestic spy agency, ASIO. “This is wrong on so many levels,” Wilkie told the House of Representatives, adding: “It is obviously wrong from a national security point of view.” Wilkie said that if you walked down the street and asked 100 people at random, “I reckon 100 out …