Via the AFR:
Labor Senator Sam Dastyari faces more scrutiny over his links with China after an explosive tape recording reveals he delivered a scripted, deliberate and detailed defence of the Chinese government’s aggressive land grab in the South China Sea, despite his repeated attempts to deny it.
And Fairfax Media has confirmed that intelligence collected by national security officials corroborates that Senator Dastyari planned to make the comments before he delivered them.
The recording emerged on the same day Labor leader Bill Shorten put Senator Dastyari on notice and Malcolm Turnbull queried his loyalty to Australia, after it was revealed the senator warned Chinese businessman and political donor Huang Xiangmo he was being monitored by Australian security agencies.
Senator Dastyari warned Mr Huang in October last year his phone was being tapped and that he should not speak near his phone or inside his home.
And The Australian:
Labor Senator Sam Dastyari has suffered another blow with a partial tape emerging of his infamous press conference where he contradicted Labor policy on the South China Sea.
Last year it was revealed that the Senator had pledged to respect China’s position on the South China Sea while standing next to Huang Xiangmo, a businessman who had previously paid one of his legal bills.
In the tape, which Channel Nine reported was recorded at the press conference, the Senator says Australia should not interfere in the dispute.
“The Chinese integrity of its borders is a matter for China, and the role that Australia should be playing as a friend is to know that we think several thousand years of history, thousands of years of history when it is and isn’t our place to be involved.”
“As a supporter of China and a friend of China the Australian Labor Party is playing an important role in maintaining that relationship and the best way of maintaining that relationship is knowing when it is and isn’t our place to be involved,” he said.
Labor at the time had a very different position.
More at The Australian:
It is believed Mr Shorten called ASIO’s top officials this week to check whether Senator Dastyari was a national security concern.
Senior Labor figures are furious about Senator Dastyari’s alleged behaviour. One senior Labor source said his future should be seriously in doubt after the revelations. “If he is still in parliament at the end of the next parliamentary sitting week, then our country has a problem,” the source said.
…Asked about the issue yesterday, Mr Huang did not deny he was warned by Senator Dastyari that his phone might be tapped. However, he accused the media of telling fairytales. “Mr Huang is not interested in the fairytales being told by some sections of the media,” a spokesman for the Chinese businessman said.
“As he made clear, he is focusing on economic issues, including the growth of his business.”
Other Labor figures hit out at the report in Fairfax Media, suggesting it was a government leak. Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese labelled the report a “beat-up” and accused the government of using intelligence agencies to make a political point.
Dastayari has taken money from those to whom he leaked sensitive espionage information and defended their foreign interests against his own party. He’s lied about most of it. His own leader has to ring ASIO to check if he’s done anything dubious since.
We don’t need some atmosphere of panicked McCarthyism but we do need to enforce some basic ministerial standards.
If he’s not sacked then Labor’s own sense of the national interest faces serious and very unsettling questions.
