Dastyari brazens it out, but isn't the first to contradict policy

Former prime minister John Howard at the National Press Club, suggesting it’s time for Sam Dastyari to leave the frontbench, yesterday:

That was the rule in the end that I ­applied when people got into difficulty and I think (Senator Dastyari), on that ground, he has gone a million.

Good advice. Sam Dastyari, quitting the Labor frontbench, yesterday:

What I did was within the rules but it was wrong … I accept that and I am here to make it clear that I accept the consequences … I’m paying the price for that mistake.

And putting his key message on Twitter, moments later:

The Labor Party owes me nothing and I owe the Labor Party everything. Bill Shorten and the team don’t deserve this distraction.

Speaking of Twitter. The Australian’s Chris Kenny with an observation, Twitter, yesterday:

Twitterati had so many laffs when Bronwyn was in freefall … a little tetchy about mocking Szechuan Sam …

Don’t mention the Cold War! Wendy Bacon ignores the South China Sea, Twitter, yesterday:

There is a problem with @samdastyari donations but all this hysteria about toeing the line on #China (h)as worrying cold war ring.

In fairness, Dastyari’s not the only one who has gone off-piste on China policy. Malcolm Turnbull speaking at the launch of the 2011 PwC/Melbourne Institute AsiaLink Index, November 28, 2011:

The best and most realistic strategic outcome for East Asia must be one in which the powers are in balance, with each side effectively able to deny the domination of the other.

Turnbull as opposition communications spokesman speaking at the London School of Economics, October 6, 2011:

With its energy and resource security depending on long global sea lanes, it is hardly surprising that China would seek to enhance its naval capacity. Suggestions that China’s recent launch of one aircraft carrier and plans to build another are signs of a new belligerence are wide of the mark.

The Australian’s Greg Sheridan, ­December 3, 2011:

Malcolm Turnbull has delivered two important speeches on China that … contradict Liberal Party policy, they contradict Liberal leader Tony ­Abbott and Liberal foreign affairs spokeswoman Julie Bishop …

Here’s lookin’ at you, lifters! Treasurer Scott Morrison on 25 years of sustained economic growth, ­yesterday:

(The results are) a tribute to every Australian who has gone out there, gone to work, got a job, that is running or has started a business.

The Age website, yesterday:

7 surprisingly awesome things you can cook in a sandwich press

We assume they didn’t test the recipes in-house. The Australian’s Media Diary, August 15:

The Age’s small business editor … has been leading a campaign of militant vegan Fairfax journalists to install a third, vegan-only sandwich press in the newspaper’s lunchroom …

The Philippines’ President Rodrigo Duterte might need a ­bigger sandwich press, ­Philippine Daily Inquirer, yesterday:

(Terrorists) will pay. When the time comes, I will eat you in front of people … If you make me mad, in all honesty, I will eat you alive, raw.