Sam Dastyari, Bill Shorten fail China character test

Bill Shorten failed to force the issue earlier on Sam Dastyari, who had the powerful Labor right behind him.

The Dastyari Dynasty is over. It is a wonder it took so long. The Chinese characters were on the wall weeks ago.

This newspaper editorialised about the need for Senator Sam Dastyari to resign from the Senate a fortnight ago. A few days later I wrote: “Shorten ought to know it is over. Federal politics is no longer a suitable career for Dastyari. There are other options; let a hundred flowers blossom.”

So why did it take so long? And why did it happen today?

It took a long while because Dastyari is a numbers man for Bill Shorten. The Opposition Leader couldn’t bring himself to call on Dastyari to resign for fear the former NSW ALP state secretary might turn his right faction mates against Shorten.

It is a wonder Dastyari wasn’t forced out a year ago when his spruiking on behalf of China first became clear. The more recent revelations merely underline those transgressions.

We need to be clear-eyed about what has happened here. A Labor senator has had to quit parliament because he has been found to be spruiking Chinese foreign policy while having personal bills paid for by China. This is a transgression of historic proportions.

Dastyari deserves no sympathy. He has betrayed the trust of every Australian. But his departure is a clear warning to our national political class. They are being played off a break by Chinese agents of influence. Money talks - and deep pockets in China are bankrolling political parties, ex-politicians from both sides of the aisle, lobbyists and fringe-dwellers in our system.

Some of this is legitimate for companies (always joint-owned by the Chinese communist regime) investing in and dealing with Australia. But some of it is aimed directly at infiltrating out political system in order to ensure Beijing’s interests are served ahead of Canberra’s. It is way beyond time for a serious look at these arrangements and Malcolm Turnbull’s new legislation in this area is most welcome. Reconsideration of laws around foreign political donations is also relevant.

Of deep concern, however, is how Dastyari did not admit his error. He did not apologise to Australia or Australians. In fact he said he was resigning only to further the interests of the ALP. Wrong – he still doesn’t get it. He has let down Australians and failed in his duty to put their interests above those of Chinese benefactors or China itself.

Why did he finally go today? Because it finally became clear the muck was starting to spread onto other Labor figures – most importantly Shorten – who were trying to defend him. Yet even now Shorten has not accepted what has gone on. Instead, he echoes the desperate lines of Kristina Keneally that attacks on Dastyari’s double dealing are somehow a racist slur on China and the Chinese.

This is absurd and deeply damaging to our national interest. It compounds the damage Labor has done. Rather than attempting to publicly smear the Australian government as racist, Labor ought to admit the error of Dastyari’s ways.

The Australia-China relationship remains crucial for both nations. Our economic and people-to-people links are deep and growing; and rightly so. Eradicating any improper lobbying or influence does not undermine this relationship but should protect it.