Dastyari video sparks backlash

Coalition frontbencher Angus Taylor says the mocking of a western Sydney family home by Sam Dastyari is “tasteless”.

The Sydney family whose home was mocked by Labor sen­ator Sam Dastyari have labelled him a ‘snob’ Picture: Sam Dastyari/Facebook

Coalition MPs have attacked Sam Dastyari for “sneering” at “average Australians” in a housing affordability video, calling the exercise “tasteless” and a “shocking indictment on the state of the modern Labor Party”.

Senator Dastyari, a NSW senator and deputy opposition whip in the Senate, posted a Facebook video on the weekend that shows him inspecting $1 million homes in the northwestern Sydney suburbs of Ryde, Northmead and Toongabbie.

Leanne Carabetta, the owner of a Ryde property featured in the video, which sold for $1.3 million at auction on Saturday, has labelled him a “snob” and told The Australian she had been offended by his comments.

Senator Dastyari says of her house: “This is what’s called a ‘classic house’ in the suburb of Ryde, immaculately kept as it’s been told, on one of the busiest roads of Sydney to boot.

“And you know if it’s got security shutters you’re onto a good thing.”

Bill Shorten claimed at a press conference he had not seen the video but shared it on Facebook yesterday.

Angus Taylor, the Assistant Minister for Cities and Digital Transformation whose NSW electorate takes in some southwestern Sydney suburbs, said to “mock” these homes was “just totally tasteless”.

“People work incredibly hard to buy a house, it’s a big deal for them, and he wanders out there … as sort of an experiment or expedition of some sort in a bus and mocks people’s houses. It’s extraordinary,” Mr Taylor told 2SM radio.

“In typical Labor fashion, this is headline grabbing with no practical solutions in the whole video, not once in the two minutes does Sam … mention a way forward.

“Labor independent of that has offered one way forward, which is to raise taxes, which of course is their solution to every problem. If you have blackouts, raise taxes. If electricity prices are going up, raise taxes. If you’ve got a housing problem, raise taxes. But Sam doesn’t even mention that, that’s how bad the video is.”

I find videos an effective tool to get a message across. Other MPs focus on printed material and flyers - each to their own.

— Sam Dastyari (@samdastyari) May 7, 2017

Liberal MP Tim Wilson said the video was “disappointing” and part of a “cascading series of examples of Sam Dastyari sneering at the people, average Australians”.

“Some people can’t live in the inner-city … some people actually have to save longer, some people have to sacrifice to be able to get their foothold in the property market and build their Australian dream,” Mr Wilson told Sky News.

“The last thing you want is a senator, of whatever political stripe, coming along and sneering at your choices and the fact that you’re actually investing in your own future.”

Senator Dastyari has defended the video on Twitter, saying it was “wrong to interpret the video as anything other than a cry for reform”.

He also revealed some of his videos were produced using his taxpayer-funded communications allowance.

“I find videos an effective tool to get a message across. Other MPs focus on printed material and flyers — each to their own,” Senator Dastyari said.

“All of Sydney is becoming unaffordable. Let’s do something — starting with negative gearing.”

Mr Taylor lashed the use of public funds on such social media videos “at a time when every dollar is a battle for people out there in the suburbs”.

“It’s a shocking indictment on the state of the modern Labor Party,” he said.

Senator Dastyari’s colleague Peter Khalil said he had not seen the video but thought it was “a bit harmless”.

“I’m sure he didn’t mean offence to the owner of the property. And it’s funny how the Libs have all got up in arms about it, it’s a bit of a diversion from the fact that they’re not addressing housing affordability,” he said.

Senator Dastyari was demoted from Labor’s frontbench last year after he was found to have allowed Chinese Australian donors to pay personal bills, coinciding with his support for the country’s stance on the South China Sea dispute.

Labor has proposed limiting negative gearing to new homes from 1 July and halving the capital gains discount for all assets purchased in the new financial year.