Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer to the photograph of Mr Huang that was published in The Sydney Morning Herald on 12 February 2016. Can the Prime Minister please identify the person on the right?

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Manager of Opposition Business knows the rules on props. The Manager of Opposition Business will return to his seat. The Prime Minister has the call.

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm delighted to get that question because it shows the desperation of the Labor Party. They're desperately trying to blow smoke around and cover up the intimate relationship between Senator Dastyari and, so it would seem, the Leader of the Opposition. So they have a photograph of me at a Chinese event in a public street in Sydney. Well, hooray for that. What a revelation! If you'd had a wider angle lens, you could have got the other 5,000 people who were there as well.

What we really need to know is this: what did the Leader of the Opposition say to Senator Dastyari, directly or indirectly, that prompted him, Senator Dastyari, to go to Mr Huang's house, the house that the Leader of the Opposition had visited and knew well, and tell him how to avoid surveillance activities by ASIO? The Leader of the Opposition has got to tell us that. He hasn't. He's had five weeks to talk about it and he's now had 25 minutes today in the House. He hasn't been able to provide an answer. What did he say to Senator Dastyari? And what does it say about the character of the Leader of the Opposition that he has a senator who takes money from this businessman, who is a foreign national and works closely as an agent of a foreign country?

They talked about money—I'm not talking about donations here. What we're talking about is money that Senator Dastyari took for himself.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Oh, they wave their hands. That's the character of the Labor Party. Senator Dastyari took the money for himself. His own personal debts were paid off. Because he was a Labor senator, he felt it was his right to go to this businessman and say, 'Pay off my debts.' And, when asked why he did it, he said, 'I didn't want to pay the debt.' He didn't want to pay the debt. He preferred to use his influence to sell out his party, and sell out his country, to get his debts paid off. And then, after briefings to parliamentary leadership, after briefings to the political leadership of the Labor Party, Senator Dastyari comes to the view that his patron, Mr Huang, might be under surveillance from ASIO. Off he goes to Mr Huang's house and he tells him to take care and to have a conversation in the garden with the phones put safely inside. That's not the conduct of a loyal Australian. (Time expired)