Sam Dastyari fails to convince

Bill Shorten’s decision to send Sam Dastyari to the backbench is a failure of leadership. It is too slight a punishment, given the issues of Chinese influence and money that call into question the senator’s integrity. He should resign from parliament. The latest revelation is audio of his press conference last year parroting Beijing’s line on the South China Sea and contradicting Australia’s bipartisan position. Senator Dastyari had suggested it was a clumsy accidental comment. The recording gives the impression it was scripted and deliberate. In the Senate yesterday, he declared himself “shocked” that the audio did not match his recollection. To put it mildly, Senator Dastyari has a history of inadequate explanations.

This week it emerged he had warned Chinese Communist Party-linked businessman Huang Xiangmo last year that his phone could be tapped by government agencies, including the US government. (The Australian is not suggesting that Mr Huang’s phone was bugged.) In his non-explanation yesterday, Senator Dastyari repeated the red herring assurance that he had not been given any intelligence from any agency. Again he failed to say why he gave Mr Huang counter-surveillance advice during that meeting in Sydney in October last year when he indicated they should leave their phones inside Mr Huang’s house and go outside to talk.

Senator Dastyari has a murky track record of taking money from sources linked to the Chinese government. Last year it was revealed he had passed on a $1670 debt for his overspent travel allowance to a Chinese company, Top Education Institute, which paid it on his behalf. Mr Huang’s Yuhu Group paid $5000 to settle legal bills from a dispute between Senator Dastyari and an advertising company dating back to the time when he was the NSW Labor Party boss. Mr Huang was a major donor to Labor (and to the Liberals).

The press conference in June last year featuring the two men is worrying. The day before, Mr Huang had pulled a $400,000 pledge to Labor after defence spokesman Stephen Conroy had said our navy should challenge China’s claims in the South China Sea. Then came Senator Dastyari’s comment that the South China Sea was “China’s own affair’’ and we should “remain neutral and respect China’s decision”. (There is no suggestion Senator Dastyari knew directly of the threat to the donation.) If Labor policy appears to be for sale, that can only damage our democracy and alienate the electorate. (Mr Huang has said he expected “nothing in return” for his donations.)

The broader context is disquiet about China seeking to get its way internationally through influence-peddling and the leveraging of Chinese abroad. In its annual report, ASIO said it had “identified foreign powers (read China in particular) clandestinely seeking to shape the opinions of members of the Australian public, media organisations and government officials in order to advance their country’s own political objectives”.

Senator Dastyari has yet to give a satisfactory account of his China connections. Why, then, has the Opposition Leader not insisted he resign from parliament? Surely the senator is too damaged by now to serve as a party conduit to Chinese donors in NSW. It’s certainly true he served as a rainmaker in the past. In a 2014 book, former NSW premier Bob Carr recalled one Chinese New Year fundraiser orchestrated by Senator Dastyari that brought Labor $200,000 in donations. But what matters now is the national interest, not any sectional cause.