Mark Latham: Shanghai Sam’s puerile publicity stunts

SAM Dastyari’s antics perfectly embody Labor’s approach that sees publicity trump public responsibility, writes Mark Latham.

• Halal certification in Australia is big business and worth millions to certifiers

Perhaps in today’s politics, with saturation media coverage, it’s possible for a Member of Parliament to make so many idiotic statements the system loses track and doesn’t hold him to account.

Time after time, he can stage puerile, publicity-seeking stunts yet the Canberra press gallery has already grown numb to his antics.

Yes, I’m talking about Labor senator Sam Dastyari.

Two weeks ago on Channel 7’s Morning Show, Dastyari was asked about the recent terror raids in Sydney and what he would do to solve this problem.

It’s a big issue, with innocent lives at risk.

And remember the type of barbarism involved, with the terrorists allegedly following Islamic State orders to plant a bomb in the luggage of an unsuspecting relative to blow up a plane.

Here’s how Dastyari responded, putting forward his solution:

“There has to be a language of engagement, engaging with leaders. I went and got my book properly halal certified, right, part of that in jest and part of that making the point we have to start bringing these communities into the mainstream.”

Mark Latham.

Sam Dastyari had is memoirs halal certified.

The answer to radical Islamic terrorism is to have a senator’s memoirs halal certified?

It is hard to imagine a more imbecile statement in Australian politics.

We are being asked to believe that the terror suspects plotting to kill 500 people on an Etihad flight would pause and say to themselves: “Hey, we can’t do this because one of our fellow Muslims, Senator Sam, has had his new book halal certified.”

Dastyari is trivialising the debate about terrorism, reducing it to the politics of the absurd.

There is nothing mainstream about halal certification in Australia.

In 2015 Dastyari himself admitted, “some certifiers are nothing more than scammers”.

Last month the head of the Halal Certification Authority, Mohamed Elmouelhy, disgraced himself with an anti-white racist outburst on Facebook.

In response to reports of ­falling fertility rates among Australian men, Elmouelhy gleefully predicted that “the white race will be extinct in another 40 years.”

He said, “Australian women need us to fertilise them and keep them surrounded by Muslim babies”.

He wanted white men, who he described as “beer swilling, cigarette smoking and drug injecting”, to “go choose a plot for yourself at your local cemetery (and) if you can’t afford it, commit suicide.”

Even though Elmouelhy’s comments were well-publicised in the week leading up to the Morning Show interview, Dastyari persisted in arguing for halal certification as part of the Australian “mainstream”.

This is not his first political atrocity. Dastyari has become a serial ­offender.

How many lives does Sam Dastyari have? Picture: John Feder / The Australian.

Last year it was the “Shanghai Sam” scandal, when he accepted Chinese money for the payment of his personal expenses, while at the same time announcing pro-Chinese policies.

Then in March, it was his own burst of anti-white racism when he attacked “rich white men” as “f ... ers”.

Then in May, he posted an elitist Facebook video sneering at modest housing stock in Western Sydney.

A cash-for-policy scam involving foreign money.

Using skin colour to attack white people.

Looking down his nose at working-class homes in electorates such as Parramatta.

And now, promoting the halal certification of his book as a solution to terrorism.