'Whose side are you on?': PM slams Dastyari over alleged warning to Chinese donor
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Key points:
- Shorten warns Dastyari over his ‘judgement’
- Turnbull asks: ‘Whose side are you on?’
- Sam Dastyari says he only passed on ‘gossip’, not classified info
Labor senator Sam Dastyari has denied ever receiving or passing on classified security information, following media reports alleging he warned a Chinese political donor that his phone may be tapped by government agencies.
Senator Dastyari has since released a statement claiming he only ever passed on “gossip” he heard from journalists.
The exchange, reported in the Sydney Morning Herald, came during a face-to-face meeting in Sydney, just weeks after the Labor senator resigned from the frontbench over his dealings with the businessman.
Senator Dastyari told Huang Xiangmo, who has links to the Chinese Communist Party, that they should leave their phones inside when they met at the donor’s Mosman mansion in October last year, according to the report.
The report, citing two unnamed Labor sources, also claims Labor leader Bill Shorten warned Mr Dastyari through a “back channel” that ASIO had concerns about Mr Huang shortly after the meeting at the mansion.
The meeting came less than a month after Senator Dastyari stepped down as consumer affairs spokesman and manager of opposition business in the Senate, following revelations he’d allowed Mr Huang to pay a personal debt and reportedly took a pro-China stance on the South China Sea – at odds with Labor’s position.
Labor leader Bill Shorten released a statement saying he “did not believe [Sam Dastyari was] the subject of any national security investigation.”
Mr Shorten said he had spoken with the senator and issued him a warning.
“I have also spoken to Senator Dastyari, who has never made a secret of the fact that this meeting took place. He has again confirmed that he did not pass on any classified information, because he didn’t have any,” Mr Shorten wrote in the statement.
“I have made it clear to Senator Dastyari that this is not the first time his judgement has been called into question, but I certainly expect it to be the last.”
The government has demanded details about the meeting and suggested the Labor senator should resign if the allegations reported by Fairfax Media were true.
“He should really be considering his position in the Senate,” Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told reporters on Wednesday.
“Here’s the question for Sam Dastyari: Whose side are you on? Why are you giving counter-surveillance advice to a foreign national closely linked to a foreign government?”
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said Senator Dastyari’s job would become “untenable” if the story was true.
“Acting against our national security interests is acting against Australia’s national interests,” Ms Bishop said.
Senator Dastyari has released a statement denying any wrongdoing in his meeting with Mr Huang.
“After the events of last year, I spoke to Mr Huang to tell him that I did not think it was appropriate that we have future contact,” he said.
“I thought it was a matter of common courtesy to say this face-to-face,” Senator Dastyari said.
Senator Dastyari insisted he has never been briefed by any security agency, or received any classified information.
“I reject any assertion that I did anything other than put to Mr Huang gossip being spread by journalists.”
Dan Tehan, the minister responsible for cybersecurity, said there were “serious questions” for both Bill Shorten and Sam Dastyari to answer.
Mr Tehan told SBS World News he could not confirm whether Huang Xiangmo was monitored by any Australian intelligence agencies.
– with wires
Article source: http://smh.com.au/world/facebook-takes-down-data-and-thousands-of-posts-obscuring-reach-of-russian-disinformation-20171013-gz09rl.html
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