The inglorious implosion of Sam Dastyari’s political career has ignited concern about the influence of foreign money on Australian politics.
The Senator’s decision to resign was the only appropriate response to revelations about the nature of his relationship with Chinese business owner and political donor Huang Xiangmo.
I had considered the racist abuse hurled at Labor Senator Sam Dastyari to be a deliberate publicity stunt by a group of neo-Nazis, enabled by a climate of rising bigotry and white nationalism, on the grounds that they deliberately sought out the senator, filmed their racist abuse and posted it on Facebook.
That was before Pauline Hanson explained otherwise. The senator, campaigning in Queensland, pointed out that Dastyari was just using abuse he faced in a pub on November 8 to sell his book.