Senator Sam Dastyari ignored Labor policy during Chinese grilling
FORMER prime minister Tony Abbott today tipped under-fire Senator Sam Dastyari will resign on Sunday after the Bennelong by-election, claiming Labor Party insiders have given up on him.
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FORMER PM Tony Abbott has tipped under-fire Senator Sam Dastyari will resign on Sunday after the Bennelong by-election.
“Insiders in the Labor Party have given up on him, they are doing a series of inside jobs on him now,” Mr Abbott told 2GB.
It follows comments today from Labor frontbencher Linda Burney who said: “Sam Dastyari, I’m sure is thinking very deeply about his role within the party.”
The senator is under renewed pressure after revelations he urged Labor’s then foreign affairs spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek to pull out of a meeting with pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong, and failed to get her authorisation before grilling Australia’s top defence officials with pro-China questions.
The Daily Telegraph revealed senior Labor figures harboured serious concerns over Mr Dastyari’s relationship with the Chinese when he urged Ms Plibersek to drop planned meetings with the pro-democratic movement, including Joseph Cheng Yu-Shek, in Hong Kong two years ago.
Ms Plibersek’s spokesman told The Daily Telegraph her Hong Kong itinerary, which included a meeting with a prominent pro-democracy activist, “went ahead precisely as scheduled. I think that speaks for itself.”
She declined to canvass conversations with colleagues.
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But The Daily Telegraph has confirmed Senator Dastyari tried to call her and her office while she was in Hong Kong to urge her not to meet with pro-democracy activists as it would upset the Chinese — or words to that effect. Ms Plibersek ignored his pleas, and those of the Chinese, and went ahead with the meeting.
Mr Dastyari has defended his actions privately, saying he had received a phone call from Chinese media critical of Ms Plibersek’s trip and was simply phoning her to pass on the media query and alert her to the concerns.
It’s understood he passed on phone numbers for Ms Plibersek and her office to the Chinese media that contacted him. Prior to that meeting, Mr Dastyari failed to seek permission from Ms Plibersek and went against Labor policy to grill then defence secretary Dennis Richardson and former DFAT secretary Peter Varghese with 115 questions representing China’s concerns over the South China Sea and Australia’s friendship with Japan and the United States.
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It is understood the extent of the grilling came as a surprise to Ms Plibersek and her office. Ms Plibersek’s office is understood to have expected some of the questions but others were not run by her or her staff — and were not in keeping with Labor Party policy.
“All Labor senators were provided with the same briefing prior to Senate estimates. But, of course, senators are free to ask whatever they like,” a spokesman for Ms Plibersek said.
The sessions cast doubt on Mr Dastyari’s claim he misspoke when speaking at a press conference alongside donor Huang Xiangmo about the South China Sea.
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It is understood there have been concerns within senior Labor ranks at Mr Dastyari’s relationship with Chinese figures since soon after he entered the Senate in August 2013.
Mr Dastyari’s questioning of senior public servants is set to be examined by the powerful privileges committee, after Attorney-General George Brandis last Thursday asked for permission to refer it following The Daily Telegraph’s report into the Labor senator’s links to China.
Mr Dastyari has defended the questions during parliamentary hearings, stating he was holding the Coalition government to account.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said Mr Dastyari needed to resign from the Senate.
“Well, there is no doubt, you see with Senator Dastyari a very clear case of somebody who has taken, literally taken money from people closely associated with the Chinese government and in return for that has delivered essentially Chinese policy statements,” Mr Turnbull said.
“Dastyari should be out of the Senate.”
But Labor is still backing Mr Dastyari, with Shadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus saying his colleague had already “paid a heavy price” but admitted that his career was “going nowhere fast”.
Mr Dastyari declined to comment yesterday.