Sam Dastyari

Sahand "Sam" Dastyari (born 28 July 1983) is an Australian Senator representing New South Wales, and former General Secretary of the New South Wales branch of the Australian Labor Party. He is the first person of Iranian origin to sit in an Australian parliament.

Born in Sari, Mazandaran Province, Iran to an ethnic Azeri father and Persian mother, Dastyari arrived in Australia in January 1988, aged four. His parents were student activists in the 1979 Iranian revolution.

Dastyari attended John Purchase Public School in Cherrybrook, where he was elected school captain (before the principal vetoed the election result), and Baulkham Hills High School, where he was school vice-captain and graduated in 2001. Although he was admitted to medicine, he decided to study law and enrolled at the University of Sydney, where he studied for a Bachelor of Economics and Bachelor of Laws. Dastyari soon dropped out, having been "so caught up in the movement and student politics". He has since completed undergraduate studies at Macquarie University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts majoring in politics and studied part-time.

Dastyari joined the Labor Party at 16, running the Labor Club while at university, as a "student wheeler-dealer", and becoming President of Young Labor.

Dastyari lives in Sydney's inner-western suburb of Russell Lea, together with his wife Helen and daughter.

Dastyari is a member of the Halal Snack Pack Appreciation Society. although publicly claiming "[s]ome [halal] certifiers are nothing more than scammers."

Dastyari, as a member of Labor's Unity faction, initially worked with lobbyists Hawker Britton. Dastyari was elected as General Secretary of NSW Labor in March 2010 with the support of the Transport Workers' Union (TWU), the Electrical Trades Union (ETU), and the Australian Workers Union (AWU). Dastyari is a member of the Labor Right faction.

On 21 August 2013, a joint sitting of the Parliament of New South Wales appointed Dastyari to the Senate seat vacated by Matt Thistlethwaite, who had resigned on 9 August to contest the House of Representatives seat of Kingsford Smith at the 2013 federal election.

The retirements of Bernie Ripoll and Jan McLucas from the shadow ministry was the cause of a reshuffle in October 2015 which saw Dastyari become the Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition and the Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for School Education and Youth.

Following Labor's narrow defeat at the 2016 election, Dastyari was promoted to the shadow outer ministry becoming the Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate and spokesman for consumer affairs. Dastyari resigned from the positions following a scandal over payments and gifts from Chinese companies.

Dastyari identifies as a "non-practising Muslim". In 2012, at a dinner to promote multiculturalism and "bring Muslims and others together to learn and understand each other’s culture and religious significance", Dastyari said "Labor core values are similar to Islamic social values such as equal justice and respect for everyone".

In 2016, Dastayari expressed strong criticism of the political influence wielded by ten of the largest corporations operating in Australia - Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank, Westpac, ANZ, Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton, Fortescue Metals, Telstra and "your two big grocery chains", Woolworths Limited and Coles Supermarkets.

Dastyari supports same-sex marriage.

In September 2016, it was revealed that Dastyari had asked a Chinese company, Top Education Institute, run by a businessman with links to the Chinese government, to cover a travel expense. Yuhu, another Chinese company, paid a $1,600 legal bill for Dastyari. Sam Dastyari spoke at a number of Chinese held conferences and was at odds with the Australian government's policy, as well as his own party's policy, on the South China Sea. Malcolm Turnbull, the Prime Minister, accused him of accepting money in exchange for supporting China in its South China Sea territorial disputes. The uproar over Dastyari's actions was seen by The Economist as a sign of the changing mood among Australians regarding Chinese investment. Initially, Dastyari attempted to defuse the situation by offering the money he had received to a charity, however the charity refused to accept the donation stating that it "did not wish to be compromised" by taking the payment.

As a result of this controversy, on 7 September 2016 Dastyari resigned from his shadow frontbench position as Manager of Opposition Business and spokesman for consumer affairs, and is now a backbencher in the senate.