Upon announcing my decision in passing to family and friends the response was overwhelmingly similar.

"Don't get a Huawei, the Chinese Government will be listening to you."

Well, at least one government would be listening to me.

Well, that is what I thought at the time, although have since found out that the Peter Dutton and his motley crew of cronies have been listening to us the whole time.

Obviously not in the traditional, and some would say antiquated, sense of responding to the needs and concerns of their constituents for the greater good, and to the best of their abilities, but more in the eavesdropping on phone calls, intercepting emails, reading messages, monitoring social media streams and even accessing some journalists travel itineraries.

Since finding that out I have sent a stream of, what must be very confusing, messages and emails to colleagues and friends alike demanding answers on water security and asking for the rising cost of living expenses to be examined. Alas, they mustn't be listening to me this week.

Meanwhile Mr Dutton has come out in defence of the actions, stating "nobody is above the law." Except himself it seems.

Under those new metadata retention laws the Department of Home Affairs is legally required to publish an annual report providing details of how many times those laws were used to access private citizen's data.

So far the department has failed to do that for the 2017-18 financial year, and despite being more than a year overdue Mr Dutton has said nothing to suggest the report is coming.

Mr Dutton has also ensured he is the only minister able to redact and edit Commonwealth Ombudsman reports.

That does sound "above the law".

It has also come to light that the findings of a taxpayer funded $7 million review into the Department of Home Affairs would not be released, and yet again no reason has been offered up to those who paid for it. Once again, seemingly "above the law."