Malcolm Turnbull has been accused of ‘Chinaphobia’ for attacking Labor senator Sam Dastyari’s links to a Chinese Communist Party-linked businessman who has made generous political donations.
Labor’s Bennelong candidate Kristina Keneally made the accusation against the prime minister as they both campaigned in the northern Sydney seat ahead of next weekend’s crucial by-election.
‘There is an element of Chinaphobia that is rippling through Malcolm Turnbull and the Liberals’ rhetoric,’ the former New South Wales premier told reporters on Saturday. ‘It’s quite unhelpful.’
Former NSW Labor premier Kristina Keneally accused Malcolm Turnbull of ‘Chinaphobia’
Labor senator Sam Dastyari was sacked as opposition deputy whip after it emerged he had told Chinese businessman his phone might be bugged
Mr Turnbull has politically exploited Senator Dastyari’s links to Chinese Communist Party-linked businessman Huang Xiangmo after it emerged the Labor politician had visited his home at Mosman, on Sydney’s North Shore, and told him his phone was possibly being bugged.
This led to Opposition Leader Bill Shorten last month sacking the former NSW Labor general secretary as opposition deputy whip.
The Turnbull Government has since focused its attacks on Senator Dastyari’s links to China, which has annoyed the Chinese government ahead of a by-election in the Bennelong electorate, where 21 per cent of its residents are Chinese.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said in Beijing he was ‘shocked’ at Mr Turnbull’s claims last week that China was seeking to manipulate the Australian media and politicians.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (right with Bennelong candidate John Alexander) has accused China of seeking to influence Australian politicians
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said he was ‘shocked’ by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s claims that China was manipulating the Australian media and politicians
‘We express strong dissatisfaction at this, and have already lodged solemn representations with the Australian side,’ Mr Shuang said on Saturday.
‘We were shocked at what Mr Turnbull has said. Such comments are full of prejudice against China, are baseless and poison the atmosphere of China-Australia relations.’
Video also emerged last month of Senator Dastyari holding a media conference for Chinese language media with Mr Huang, where he contradicted Labor’s policy on the South China Sea dispute with Japan.
The Chinese businessman has been a generous Australian political donor since 2012, giving $3 million to the Labor and Liberal parties.
Malcolm Turnbull’s exploitation of Sam Dastyari’s Chinese businessman link has upset China
Chinese Communist Party-linked businessman Huang Xiangmo is at the centre of an Australian political storm
With the senator now exposed as having asked 115 questions about China to Department of Defence officials, Mr Turnbull has called on Opposition Leader Bill Shorten to sack Senator Dastyari from the Labor Party.
‘There has been foreign interference in Australian politics and Sam Dastyari is a classic case,’ the prime minister said.
‘Why is Bill Shorten allowing him to stay in the Labor Party?’.
Ms Keneally, who ran NSW in 2010 and early 2011 when Senator Dastyari was her party’s right-faction state secretary, needs a 9.7 per cent swing to take the seat of Bennelong off the Liberal Party.
Its candidate John Alexander, a former top-seeded tennis champion, quit parliament in November after discovering he was a dual citizen through his British-born father, sparking the December 16 by-election.