Sam Dastyari: The rise and fall of the ‘ultimate faceless man’
HE joined the Labor Party as a teen and rose through the ranks to become one of the party’s most powerful figures, even labelled the “ultimate faceless man” by former prime minister Tony Abbott. This morning he was gone.
NSW
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SAM Dastyari was a man in a hurry, a one-time factional powerbroker brought down by persistent ties to a political donor with close ties to Chinese authorities.
As one of Labor’s most prominent figures — despite not holding a frontbench position — Dastyari’s close connection with Bill Shorten meant the pressure on him to resign for weeks was having a serious impact.
The political damage he caused Shorten, who was successfully pursuing a divided Coalition before the most recent scandal erupted, was significant.
But since he joined the party in high school, aged 16, Dastyari has become one of Labor’s most recognised faces despite being branded “the ultimate faceless man” by former prime minister Tony Abbott.
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Dastyari, once president of Young Labor, dropped out of Sydney University after becoming caught up in student politics.
He once even recalled stacking the Hornsby branch with his friends to wrest control — in his school uniform.
By 2010, he had become general secretary of NSW Labor, where in the early years he once quipped he wanted to stay until 2019.
There, as a serious powerbroker at Sussex Street, Dastyari became known for someone who could net serious amounts of cash to fund the Labor election war chest. Former NSW premier Bob Carr wrote once of an occasion Dastyari, having organised a Chinese New Year function at the Shangri-La Hotel, netting $200,000.
It may have been a sign of things to come.
His support for Julia Gillard to roll Kevin Rudd as prime minister was important, and earned him Abbott’s epithet.
In 2013 he was elected to the Senate, where he stayed until this morning when he announced he would not go on.
Despite the Chinese donations scandal having consumed his public profile over the last year, forcing him to resign as Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate last year and deputy Opposition whip this year, Dastyari became known for his outspoken advocacy of a banking royal commission and his love of halal snack packs.
But it was revelations last year about Dastyari’s connection with billionaire Huang Xiangmo that was his downfall and what he will likely be known most for after his resignation today.
It was then that details of a $44,000 legal settlement to be paid by Dastyari was actually paid for by Huang’s firm Yuhu.
Dastyari’s statements to the Chinese-language media, and his constant questions about the controversial South China Sea before Defence officials at Senate estimates hearings, began to raise concerns about a “cash-for-comment” moment.
More revelations soon came — Dastyari has allegedly suggested Huang leave his phone and talk outside in the likelihood Australian intelligence officers were tapping the line.
Despite pressure from the Coalition to resign, it was only yesterday when Labor figures began to break ranks, first human services spokeswoman Linda Burney and later health spokeswoman Catherine King.