As a factional player of the Labor centre right and therefore in Shortens orbit, both Sam Dastyari and Labor are compromised.
Lets assume Bill Shorten becomes Prime Minister at the next election, a likely scenario given the current polling trajectory. Having knowledge of Dastyari’s duplicity and his proximity to Shorten due to his factional alliances, we can only expect that our allies will withhold or only partially reveal secrets (as did the US to the UK in the 40’s when atomic secrets were leaked to Russia) for fear that Dastyari will either sell them or alert his handlers to the benefit of communist China.
As well as damaging Australia’s standing with loyal allies of many decades, Dastyari is also damaging the Labor brand and Labor has no choice but to show him the door.
As for motive, I made the point last year in September that wile we’re looking for the intriguing and complicated stuff the answer as to the nature of the relationship was more prosaic and mundane and has been starring us in the face all along. It was just a case of business as usual. It was and is the standard MO, business as usual, operating model and procedure that’s been refined and practiced by ALP Sussex Street headquarters in NSW (in the heart of Chinatown) and of which Dastyari was General Secretary and the union movement under the tutelage of Bill Shorten and other luminaries and as outlined and revealed at the Union Royal Commission over decades.