Pressure mounts on Dastyari
SAM Dastyari is facing calls to resign from the Senate after being sacked from Labor’s frontbench for parroting a Chinese donor’s lines on aggressive land grabs in the South China Sea.
Senator Dastyari has quit his positions as Opposition deputy whip in the Senate and chairman of a parliamentary committee, but is remaining in the Senate.
His move comes after audio emerged of the NSW senator backing China’s controversial moves in the South China Sea, in defiance of government and Labor policy, despite saying last year he had “mumbled” his answer and “answered it incorrectly”.
It was also revealed Senator Dastyari warned political donor Huang Xiangmo – a businessman with links to the Chinese Communist Party – that his phone may be tapped by government agencies, at a meeting in October last year at Mr Huang’s Sydney home.
The meeting occurred just weeks after Senator Dastyari resigned from the Labor shadow ministry after it was revealed he received a payment of $ 1670.82 from another Australian Chinese businessman, Minshen Zhu.
In a statement to Parliament, Senator Dastyari said he had not passed on any classified information but was resigning due to his mischaracterisation of the comments he made about the South China Sea.
“I let myself down and my party down by contradicting party policy and I paid the appropriate penalty,” he said.