CANBERRA: The Australian Defence Department has flown under the radar in extending a contract with a Chinese-owned company to continue storing data in its Sydney facilities.

For a decade sensitive military files have been stored by Global Switch, the ownership of which changed hands in December 2016 when the London-based parent company, Aldersgate Investments, accepted $4 billion in cash for a 49 percent stake from Chinese consortium Elegant Jubilee.

At the time the then treasurer Scott Morrison confirmed strict new conditions had been placed on the Australian operations and Defence would begin to shift its data back to a government-owned hub once the contract expired.

However, according to the ABC, the Defence Department signed a new deal with Global Switch last year.

“Defence has extended its property lease to provide for Defence access to the Global Switch Ultimo (GSU) data centre facility beyond the original lease expiry date of 30 September 2020,” a Defence spokesperson told the ABC.