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Articles by Sam Dastyari
Australian Government’s $270 billion defence funding a waste of money, Sam Dastyari says
COMMENT Today’s $270bn defence announcement would be better spent on free gym membership than missiles. At least that would give Australia a gun show we can appreciate. In case you missed the big news today, a bunch of former high school misfits turned politicians are planning to compensate for everything they lack by spending another $270 billion on defence. This time on missiles. A “anti-ballistic missile shield” which sounds just like what it is – a bunch of words designed to sound impressive.
I Had A Stormy Time Trying To Get A Pornstar To Come Down Under
I knew I had blown my chances even before I'd hung up the phone. “You want her to come to Australia?" the voice inquired, more interested in how I'd got his number than in why I was trying to track down the world’s most famous porn star, Stormy Daniels. “Yes”, I replied, quickly. “She loves Australia. There is a picture of her holding an Australian Travel guide,” I tell him. “In one of her movies?” he asks.
Sam Dastyari: Luckily For Bridget McKenzie, The Days Of Scandals Ruining Politicians Are Over
There is an old saying: "you can survive anything in politics, except ridicule". That used to be true. Now in the era of Donald Trump and Boris Johnson, even ridicule won’t even cost you your job. Bridget McKenzie should be finished. Over. Done. She will forever be known as the Minister for Sports rorts. Having been caught out using a $100 million sporting grant allowance for pork-barrelling, she’s been given a ‘rotten’ verdict by her own Government auditor. It's more than enough to finish a career.
Sam Dastyari: Like Everything Else, Today’s Failed NSW Leadership Spill Is Tony Abbott’s Fault
Just when you thought NSW politics couldn’t be more pathetic... Today we witnessed a leadership spill without a spill. It was just an embarrassing press release, a small puff of sound and then the silence of humiliation. The attempted removal of a popular Premier was shambolic, stupid and embarrassing. It was a bunch of unknowns doing nothing. It was champagne NSW politics.
Sam Dastyari: Has Gladys Liu Heard Of The 'Sam Dastyari Threshold'?
South Australian Senator Rex Patrick spoke yesterday about the “Sam Dastyari threshold”. It was during an interview on ABC radio. In his opinion, the Liberal Member for Chisholm Gladys Liu needs to consider her position in Parliament in light of the questions that have arisen in relation to some of her Chinese connections. I’m 36 years old and I’m now a "threshold". Yay to my life decisions. I really shouldn’t listen to those interviews. I try not to consume too much media these days.
Sam Dastyari: The Left's Reaction To Barnaby Joyce Is Why We Keep Losing
Barnaby Joyce’s comments yesterday are a demonstration of why the left keeps losing elections. Well, not his comments per se, but the response to them. Barnaby Joyce made the decision to support an increase in Newstart. He did so by comparing his plight as a politician earning over $200,000 per year to those struggling to survive. He appeared out of touch and foolish. But he was a convert -- someone the left should have welcomed.
Sam Dastyari: Will Tony Abbott Ever Be Happy? Should We...
I’ve been thinking a lot about Tony Abbott recently. Which is odd. I never really thought about him when he was the Prime Minister. I knew that I hated him and that was enough. It’s genuinely hard finding time to think about Tony Abbott between the articles on Scott Morrison’s politicisation of religion and the angry rants I read about Peter Dutton. A steady media diet of opinions I already agree with. The take away fast-food of journalism. Tony Abbott isn’t exactly a popular figure in my circles.
Sam Dastyari: It's No Bad Thing If Bill Shorten Still Wants To Be PM
Bill Shorten still wants to be Prime Minister. Anthony Albanese also wants the role. As do Tanya Plibersek, Peter Dutton, Josh Frydenberg... In fact, despite the current occupant, Scott Morrison, being a pretty big fan of holding onto it, basically everyone in the House of Representatives wants to be Prime Minister. Good. It’s what we should want as a nation: a group of people jostling to win over the public -- and their colleagues -- with the ambition of leading us.
Sam Dastyari: Voters Taught Bill Shorten A Brutal Lesson. Here's A Kinder One
Dear Bill, Power bleeds. A week ago you were expected to wake up as the Prime Minister-elect of Australia. None of us really knows what you are experiencing. I know you are putting on a brave face. Joking. Laughing. Smiling. But I also know there is a pain underneath that. Your friends and colleagues will pretend they know what you are going through. That they understand your sense of loss. But they will be lying; both to you and to themselves. Bill Shorten lost the federal election on 18 May.
Sam Dastyari This Is The Real Reason Labor Lost The Ele...
There isn’t a conspiracy. There just isn’t. The Labor Party lost the election because the Australian public didn’t like our policies and we ran a poor campaign. It’s that simple. Bill Shorten concedes defeat on stage with his wife Chloe following the 2019 Federal Election on May 18. (Image: AAP) I wish that wasn’t the case. I wish there was a grand unified conspiracy theory as to what happened. But there isn’t smoke -- and there isn’t fire. Labor had a big agenda. It promoted widespread economic reform.
Sam Dastyari: Labor Will Do What It Does Best -- Blow Itself Up
Wow. Or, as one of the most senior Bill Shorten lieutenants texted me last night while I sat on Network 10’s election panel -- “what the f just happened?!?” At my local cafe this morning, where I have perched to write this column, everyone wants to talk politics. "Did you know?" I keep getting asked. "Did you have any idea of this?" I tell them the truth. No one in Labor expect this result -- no one. I saw all the Labor party polling. I spoke to all of the senior shadow Ministers.
Sam Dastyari: There Are Two Ways To Win An Election And Shorten Has Hopped On The Most Crucial One
“There are two ways you can win an election,” then-Premier Bob Carr reminded me. “You can win them retail or you can win them wholesale.” It was the night before the 2003 NSW state election. I was 20 years old, and, as was the custom of the time, hideously drunk. “Wholesale,” Bob went on to tell me, “is what the media looks at. That’s the ‘message of the day’, the newspaper articles and what’s on radio,” he said. “Retail is winning the electorates. The seats that matter.” As usual, he was right.
Why Federal Politicians Will Be Watching Today's State Election Like Hawks
It was while inhaling a succulent Chinese chicken that my mate Graham Richardson reminded me that “politics is better than sex and almost as good as lunch”. A great line that does not apply to NSW state elections. State elections are boring, formulaic and often inconsequential. Sure you get the occasional surprise; Jeff Kennett losing Victoria in the late '90s or Annastacia Palaszczuk winning more recently in Queensland. But mostly nothing happens.
Sam Dastyari: You Win A Leadership Ballot By Getting Dirty
If we lived in Latin America, Eastern Europe or even Africa there would be a convoy of Toyota Hilux’s heading towards Parliament right now with militia screaming Viva La Revolution! But this is Australia. Removing a Prime Minister is normally just another Thursday. Most leadership changes are met with yawns rather than cries of coup d'état! But that’s because most people don’t ever see just how ugly they get. Right now, Liberal Members of Parliament are being dragged into Parliament’s back rooms.
I Had A Stormy Time Trying To Get A Pornstar To Come Down Under
“You want her to come to Australia?" the voice inquired, more interested in how I'd got his number than in why I was trying to track down the world’s most famous porn star, Stormy Daniels. “Yes”, I replied, quickly. “She loves Australia. There is a picture of her holding an Australian Travel guide,” I tell him. “In one of her movies?” he asks. “No, on the internet,” I replied, only realising afterwards that perhaps I needed a more complete answer.
Sydney Writers' Festival – Sam Dastyari: One Halal of a Story
Former senator Sam Dastyari takes to the stage to discuss his memoir, One Halal of a Story, and the tumultuous year that followed its release. Joining the Labor Party when he was 16, Sam became a senator only 13 years later, before resigning in December 2017 after revelations about links to a Chinese political donor.
Top Non-Fiction Books From 2017
We’ve rounded up our favourite non-fiction books from 2017, which include titles from a Holocaust survivor who refuses to think like a victim, a young woman who investigates what love really is when stripped of self-deceiving illusions, a true story about a contemporary American hermit, and a funny and insightful collection of essays from Man Booker Prize-winner Howard Jacobson.
Rolling Stone Australia - Myanmar: The Unfolding Tragedy
The mother, whose name is Dila, is proud of her family. "Six children," she says, holding up her left hand and right index finger in case the translator has failed. "Six." Dila's colourful sari, pink and gold, is a startling contrast against the muddy plastic-sheet tent she finds herself in. I sit with her in an unmarked lane, on an unmarked road, in one of the world's largest refugee camps, Kutapolong, on the Bangladeshi side of the border with Myanmar.
The Dasher | Inside Story
One Halal of a Story By Sam Dastyari | Melbourne University Press | $29.99 | 277 pages If you’ve ever felt unloved, unappreciated or just ignored, imagine what it would feel like to be a federal parliamentarian without a Melbourne University Press contract. It’s a worse snub than being left out of the popular group at school.
Back to where I came from | Sam Dastyari
Ali is holding my hand in public. I’m a little unsure how to deal with it. It started innocuously enough. A gentle pressure on my fingers as we were crossing the street. I thought he was just guiding me through the oncoming traffic. Then, as we were walking down the boulevard, it escalated. His hand was swallowing mine. It was the confidence of a man used to holding the hands of others. He had already given me three kisses when he saw me (frankly, two more than I think is ever appropriate).
Order Your Signed Copy!
Click on the Google Preview image above to read some pages of this book! As in life, Sam Dastyari's memoir is unexpected and unorthodox. This is the man who introduced Pauline Hanson to the halal snack pack and accountability to big banks. Named Sahand by his hippy Iranian parents, he changed his name to Sam to fit in with his schoolmates. But Sam was always going to stand out. He joined the Labor Party when he was 16 and was elected as a senator only 13 years later.
UK election diary: Lessons for Australia
‘Woman of Substances’ is more than just another example of memoir-as-journalism “I met Boris Johnson at a laundromat a day before the election,” I tell my friends. He is now likely to be the next leader of British Conservatives. From trawling for votes outside a laundromat to the next leader of your political party. Politics is a fast business. Of course there are no guarantees that Theresa May won’t survive. But she is now in in the “death zone”.
UK election diary: A calm descends
Labor senator Sam Dastyari, in London for the UK general election, was caught up in the attack on the Borough Market “Tonight feels very much like Casablanca,” Richard Angell tells me as we head to a vigil for those killed in the London terror attacks. I have been living with Richard for a week while working on the UK election, and things have already settled into a routine. Similar to that of a married couple. We know each other’s movements and finish each other’s sentences.
UK election diary: The London attacks
It’s the day after the London attacks, and I am sitting in a dingy bar, too tired to be there, but too tired to move. It’s only busy this Sunday afternoon because it’s the bar that sits directly opposite the police perimeter fence holding back the media circus that has descended on the Borough Market. Less than a few hundred metres from where at least seven people were murdered the night before. I’m here with Richard, who isn’t tired at all, just defiant.
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