There is no universe in which China’s attempted annexation of the South China Sea can be morally justified. Everyone knows that. Malcolm Turnbull knows it. Bill Shorten knows it. Hillary Clinton knows it. Donald Trump knows it. Xi Jinping knows it. And Sam Dastyari knows it.
That is why Sam Dastyari needs to resign from the parliament of Australia.
By supporting China in the South China Sea he did the insupportable, which gives rise to the unrebuttable conclusion that in return for Chinese money he was bought.
Sam Dastyari is the first of this generation’s Quislings. We can’t afford more of them, and both sides of politics need to send a clear message to potential Quislings, and to their overlords, that retribution will be swift, and ruthless.
China’s attempted annexure of the South China Sea is analogous to Germany’s annexation of the Sudetenland. They have excuses, but not reasons, and it is a test by them of how much other countries will tolerate.
Tolerate too much and the aggressive push continues. The aggressor thinks they are getting away with it, but all they are really doing is ratcheting up the pressure.
Then war becomes inevitable, but at a larger and more horrific scale than if it is opposed earlier.
That is the lesson of history.
This is serious business. US think tanks are already gaming a potential war between China and the USA and the costs.
Undoubtedly this is a jawing tactic to convince the Chinese to pull back.
The great foreign policy challenge for this government, along with other governments in the world, is how to manage to convince the Chinese to retreat in the South China Sea.
We do a lot of trade with the Chinese. That makes us trading partners, not allies.
We did a lot of trade with Japan before WWII. That did not make us allies, even though in WWI we had been.
China is an adversary, unlike the US, which is a competitor.
The Australian security establishment regards China as an adversary, and stopped the Chinese from buying New South Wales power assets because it was a security risk.
Australian Labor has a bad track record on national security, and is regarded as worse than the coalition in this area.
Ben Chifley was a great wartime leader, but that was then.
Doc Evatt’s staff was riddled with Communist sympathisers, and the Communist domination of sectors of the ALP led to the DLP split which kept them out of power for a couple of decades.
If Bill Shorten does not insist that Dastyari be expelled from the ALP, rather than just resigning from the frontbench, he will add to this reputation. In effect he will be saying to foreign governments that it is OK to buy backbenchers, you just must leave frontbenchers alone.
Australia has to be united to send a message to China. Soft power is one thing, but no matter how much money you donate, we can’t be bought. We do not accept your annexation of the South China Sea, and you need to prepare to retreat and find some way to save face.
Some people will say resignation from parliament is a high price for Dastyari to pay.
Should there be a full-blown war with China, then young Australian men will lay their lives on the line. If you could save one life by sacrificing his career, what would you do?
Monday’s Q&A heard questions about Shakespeare’s attitude to minorities and refugees. In truth he had little to say about either of those things. They weren’t issues in his day, and there’s no evidence, even were he alive today, he would see them as issues now.
He was more interested in treachery – think Macbeth or Iago; Goneril and Regan; Brutus; Hamlet’s uncle Claudius.
Dastyari cast himself as a refugee on Q&A when he asked Pauline Hanson whether he should have been allowed to emigrate.
His behaviour now demeans the status of all immigrants, and exacerbates tensions in the community.
As our research shows, the big question for most Australians is “Do they come to join us or to change us?”
Sam hasn’t chosen Jihad, but he hasn’t chosen Australia either.
Shakespeare knew what to do with the Dastyaris of the world – make an example of them. So did Dante Allegheri, who reserved the deepest reaches of Hell for traitors.
Bill Shorten doesn’t need to be a classical scholar to know what to do, but in the interests of all Australians he has to ensure that Dastyari’s career is dead, buried and cremated.
The situation with China is serious. We can’t afford Quislings. China will see the “For Sale” sign up on the country. There are worse things for us than farmland that they can buy.
There is no excuse for him remaining in parliament. He is intelligent, well-spoken and a disgrace.
Comment by David Fisher — September 8, 2016 @ 8:47 am
He says he made a mistake!
What he has done is show that he is totally corruptible, & for a very low price.
Anyone with morals proven so low, should be locked up, not just chucked out of parliament. At very least he has deceived the parliament, & should be expelled for it.
It was the lingering doubt that this was the nature of Labor politicians that stopped me actually voting for them, rather than just against Turnbull at the last election. How they handle this crook will have a great effect on my future voting behaviour.
Comment by Hasbeen — September 8, 2016 @ 10:08 am
Well if that’s the case then both sides of Parliament should resign on Mass and lets start again cause they all took Chinese cash because the is no business in China that is not related to the Party.
I look forward to the entire WA liberal branch resigning along with all Liberal members as the party received Chinese cash to the tune off 200000 dollars and as we know all Chinese business are Govt owned.
Or is it the usual far right Conservative view that only Labor should be held to account because while the Lib Govt are incompetent liars,it’s all OK because they are Liberal and never do anything wrong
Comment by John Ryan — September 8, 2016 @ 12:43 pm
You destroy whatever validity your argument has from the opening sentence ,“There is no universe in which China’s attempted annexation of the South China Sea can be morally justified”-US annexed Hawaii; and further distortions reduce it to a rant- “Doc Evatt’s staff was riddled with Communist sympathizers”, “riddled”, name more than two.
Comment by Lslie Louis — September 8, 2016 @ 1:33 pm
Hmmm, I think he should resign from parliament.
It was the attitude of the Chinese boss of that company that worried me. He said that the Chinese thought they were not getting value for their money from politicians.
When they pay for costs for a group of pollies to go to China the
pollies thought the Chinese were doing it to educate them on the situation in China.
The Chinese thought they were making a down payment on getting the politicians to change policy and/or laws to suit the Chinese.
They knew Dastyari was influential so expected him to get the government to modify its policy on Sth China Sea.
All up it is a lesson for the Chinese and for the parliamentarians.
Comment by Brad — September 8, 2016 @ 1:44 pm
So Lslie, the US annexing Hawaii justifies any country annexing anything? Interesting argument. You presumably think there was no basis for WWII then, and Hitler should have just annexed anything he wanted. Your argument doesn’t pass first base.
John Ryan, I am unsurprised to see you justifying treason on the basis of your party political allegiance. The point with Dastyari is that he favoured the Chinese position when no one could possibly justify that. Julie Bishop, from WA has been one of the foremost critics of the Chinese in the South China Sea.
It is not a question of donations, it is a question of corruption. Dastyari is corrupt.
Comment by Graham — September 8, 2016 @ 2:16 pm
You are worried about Dastardly San resigning and the Chinese situation…consider the implications of the Chinese, who now own the Port of Darwin…oh did someone leave the keys to the child care centre with Dr Mengele again ? The Darwin to Adelaide railway link will be a bonus once the PLA have established a beach head in Darwin…perhaps it’s time the US 5th Fleet set up shop and finally establish the base in Joseph Bonaparte Gulf along with the site works and already bulldozed and graded airstrip for the US Marine Base at Mandorah across from Darwin Harbour…geez talk about conflicting interests. Well we only have ourselves to blame by electing the politicians we had to ‘represent’ us !
Comment by Albie Manton in Darwin — September 8, 2016 @ 2:29 pm
I tend to disagree. To think Sam could be bought for a few lousy dollars is laughable? And just a Trojan Horse to begett a predictable outcome from the massively manipulated chattering troglytes?
And literally puts cash for comment or political favours front and centre?
Only the complete rejection of foreign, corporate or union money is now the only course for those bagging Sam? Hoisted on their own petard so to speak?
If this action finally cleans out those who think elections and political favours can be bought? Well might we say, well done Sam?
Funding needs to be limited to the public purse and or as small limited transparent amounts exclusively from Australians on the Australian electoral role! And not before time!
Gotcha Sam? No, He’s the one with the line and the all too cleverly baited, foreign money hook!
Nobody could be that abysmally stupid? Except perhaps, an Aussie Labor party polly/union hack?
Alan B Goulding.
Comment by Alan B. Goulding — September 8, 2016 @ 10:13 pm