Sam Dastyari has announced his resignation yesterday amid pressure from parliament and the general public. Dastyari, as we now know accepted a payment from Chinese based real estate company Yuhu Property Group to settle a legal bill. Chinese billionaire Mr Huang Xiangmo owns Yuhu.
In 2013, Dastyari was being sued for $40,000 by an advertising company called 'Diversified Communications’for preparatory work on the ALP campaign. This was when Dastyari was General Secretary of the NSW ALP. The contract was then cancelled when Kevin Rudd was given the flick (or the stab in the back, depending on how you look at it).
The payment from Yuhu to settle the legal bill was around $5,000. You cannot help but wonder whether the 5k paid was the full amount disclosed? and why Diversified Communications accepted such a low figure in settlement?
Dastyari's name has been dragged through the mud, and his legitimacy as senator questioned as well as his allegiance to Australia given his commentary around the South China Sea issue, and his forewarnings to Mr Huang Xiangmo about potential phone bugging by the US government.
It is not far fetched to believe that Dastyari was under the puppet strings of Mr Huang Xiangmo during his time as senator, even if the full extent of it may not be known.
Malcolm Turnbull has called for Dastyari to resign on this issue and his wish was granted this week, but lets be clear about the bigger picture. The Yuhu group has donated large sums to both the LNP and the ALP.
While political donations by large corporations are nothing unusual and have been legal for many years the very act of accepting large sums undermines the very principles of government.
If large foreign corporations are funding millions to the major parties and this has become the norm, how can everyday people be assured that the government is representing their interests?
Dastyari's actions are only part of the problem. Of course the LNP will be happy to throw mud but should probably look in the mirror and will see they are not so 'clean' themselves. Any political party that accepts large donations cannot be seen to be 'impartial'. Just because political donations over 12k made by corporations are disclosed doesn't shrink the likelihood of power imbalance.
There is no such thing as a free lunch, the question remains what does the Yuhu Group and other powerful Chinese companies want in return for financially assisting senators like Dastyari? The power balance between the Australian government and the Chinese government is seemingly skewed in favour of the Chinese.
After all, the Australian government is probably reluctant to bite the hand that feeds.
Dastyari’s issues are only the tip of the iceberg. To ensure checks and balances of government, the political donations as a whole need to be revisited especially with foreign donations. Or better yet, if these major political parties are receiving such large sums from corporations maybe they can introduce some tax cuts to Australian individuals who pay their salary and pension. Chance would be a fine thing.
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I so agree. And there’s a slippery slope that leads from giving donations to outright buying of power. And that disenfranchises the populace. And a disenfranchised powerless feeling populace becomes hostile. Hostility then reduces the chance of consensus, of stable government, of progress, of democracy itself. There’s a great documentary on abc iview featuring I think Robert Reich, an American economist and he is fascinating. Thanks for writing this.
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