You played it for her, now play it for me ...
'Flabbergasted': Dastyari calls for judicial inquiry into foreign influence in politics
By Jennifer Duke
Updated June 27, 2020 — 9.10amfirst published at 9.07am
Former Labor senator Sam Dastyari has called for a full judicial inquiry into foreign influence in Australian politics following a raid on suspended NSW MP Shaoquett Moselmane's home and office by federal agents looking for links to a Chinese government interference plot.
Mr Dastyari told Channel Nine's Today on Saturday morning he was "absolutely flabbergasted" by the developments, and attempts by foreign governments to interfere with Australian politics was a problem that needed a formal public investigation.
"We have to have a process in place and frankly you need to have some kind of a large public judicial inquiry to get to the bottom of what actually is foreign influence in Australian politics," he said.
"A lot of these are being conducted by agencies, like [Australian Security Intelligence Organisation] ASIO and ... others, has to happen behind closed doors because of the nature of those kinds of things.
"We need to have a large, public inquiry, be that a royal commission or a commission of inquiry, [to] shine some light on this and get to the bottom of it because I think this is very serious."
Labor suspended Mr Moselmane on Friday following raids of his home and parliamentary office. The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age are not suggesting the allegations involving Mr Moselmane and his office are proven, only they are the subject of an ASIO and federal police inquiry.
Mr Dastyari quit Parliament in 2017 following a series of revelations about his links to Chinese Communist Party-aligned interests in Australia, including allowing Chinese donors to make payments for his travel and legal bills.
"Look, what happened to me in my career a few years ago really should have been a canary in the coalmine when it comes to foreign influence and these kinds of pressures," he said on Saturday.
"The question you have to ask yourself is - are you using them or are they using you? And it's become very, very clear, and my case demonstrated this, is that they are using you."
Nick McKenzie, the investigative journalist at The Age and the Herald who broke the story about the investigation into Mr Moselmane, said on Today there had been debate for the last few years about the Chinese Communist Party's efforts to interfere with the Australian political system.
"We have had successive leaders of ASIO to say be careful, there is system set up by the Chinese government to do this. It's improper and from 2018 it became illegal, carrying very, very strict penalties," he said.
"So, despite all these warnings, it seems like Shaoquett Moselmane has potentially been at the very least ignorant of some very clear danger signs and [allegedly] allowed his office to be infiltrated by an operation by the Chinese Communist Party."
www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/flabbergasted-dastyari-calls-for-judicial-inq...