Embattled senator Sam Dastyari’s own senior Labor colleagues are calling on him to quit parliament.
Three Labor frontbenchers Linda Burney, Catherine King and Tony Burke are publicly pressuring the senator to resign, following yet another revelation about his alleged connections with China.
Senator Dastyari’s political stocks have tumbled again, following a Fairfax Media revelation he tried to stop Labor’s deputy leader Tanya Plibersek from meeting China critic and democracy activist Joseph Cheng Yu-shek during a visit to Hong Kong in January 2015.
Labor senator Sam Dastyari’s
A spokesman for the Sydney-based senator has rejected the claims as ‘complete rubbish’.
However Ms Burney, Labor’s human services frontbencher, said Senator Dastyari needed to consider his future in parliament.
‘Sam Dastyari, I’m sure, is thinking very deeply about his role within the party,’ she told Sky News on Monday.
‘It is now up to Mr Dastyari to consider his position and I’m sure that he is doing that, but in relation to the continued role of Sam within the parliament that is a matter very much for Sam.’
Labor frontbencher Linda Burney has called on Sam Dastyari to consider his future in politics
Labor’s health frontbencher Catherine King says Sam Dastyari’s career wasn’t going ‘very far’
Catherine King, Labor’s health spokeswoman, said Opposition Leader Bill Shorten was reluctant to promote Senator Dastyari, who was last month sacked as deputy opposition whip.
‘Bill has made it very, very clear that Sam’s political career is not going very far and I think they’re matters for Sam to reflect upon,’ she told reporters.
The Opposition’s citizenship spokesman Tony Burke said his colleague had made too many mistakes on China.
‘Sam Dastyari, in terms of the penalty that he’s paid, it’s happened twice to him now,’ Mr Burke, a fellow right-faction member, said.
‘The consequences of that are pretty obvious in terms of the challenge for future promotion.’
Labor frontbencher Tony Burke has called on Sam Dastyari, a fellow right-faction politician from Sydney, to realise he was unlikely to be promoted
Sam Dastyari was revealed to have warned Chinese businessman Huang Xiangmo (pictured) his phone might be bugged
Senator Dastyari was sacked from Labor’s frontbencher last year after it was revealed he had accepted $1,670 from a Chinese-linked company, Top Education, to pay an office bill.
Last month, it emerged Senator Dastyari had told billionaire Chinese businessman Huang Xiangmo his phone might be bugged as he met the political donor at his Mosman mansion on Sydney’s North Shore.
Senator Dastyari also gave a media conference to the Chinese language media, where he contradicted Labor’s position on the Sea China Sea.
He also also been revealed to have asked Defence officials 115 questions about China in just four years.
Former prime minister Tony Abbott (right) told Sydney radio host Ray Hadley (left) that Labor senator Sam Dastyari would resign from parliament on Sunday
Former prime minister Tony Abbott is predicting Senator Dastyari will quit parliament on Sunday, the day after the crucial Bennelong by-election in Sydney’s north.
‘Take it from me Ray, insiders in the Labor party have given up on him,’ he told Sydney radio 2GB presenter Ray Hadley on Monday.
‘They are doing a series of inside jobs on him now and my tip is, on the Sunday after the Bennelong by-election Sam Dastyari will resign.
‘His blindness to reality is so great that it really is a political character flaw.’