George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Bushby, very important indeed. Just as in September last year, Senator Dastyari's response to the Fairfax allegations has been woefully inadequate. In his press release this morning, he completely failed to address the claim that he and Mr Huang held a covert conversation at Senator Dastyari's suggestion, separated by their phones in order to avoid surveillance. He failed to explain why he would take deliberate countersurveillance measures to conduct a covert conversation with Mr Huang. In stating that he had not received briefings from security agencies, he completely failed to address the claim that he had been counselled by his own party leadership after the initial report surfaced last year. That is the sort of chicanery we have come to expect from Senator Dastyari, but this time the allegations are much more serious. (Time expired)