Labor senator Sam Dastyari has announced he will step down from his Labor leadership positions in the Senate following audio emerging from a press conference he held last year contradicting the party's policy on the South China Sea.
Dastyari will lose his deputy opposition whip position, as well as his chairmanship of the committee examining the future of journalism and media. It is the second time Dastyari has been forced to resign from leadership positions in the federal Labor party over his actions related to Chinese donors to the party.
Yesterday audio tape emerged of a press conference held last year where Dastyari, standing next to wealthy Chinese donor Huang Xiangmo, contradicted Labor policy on the South China Sea.
Dastyari had previously claimed that he had mumbled and spoken incorrectly about the policy to Chinese-speaking journalists, but the audio showed Dastyari clearly said that Chinese integrity of its borders is a matter for China.
The revelation followed a story earlier on Wednesday that Dastyari had told Huang in a meeting late last year at Huang's mansion to leave his phone inside while they chatted outside, suggesting Huang's phone was tapped by security agencies.
Shorten told Dastyari last night that the audio recording of the press conference made his positions untenable, and told the senator to resign from his senior positions in the Labor Party in the Senate.
Speaking in the Senate this morning, Dastyari said he was surprised about the audio.
"A recent audio recording shocked me as it did not match my recollection of events," he said. "I take responsibility for my mischaracterisation.
"When a public official makes a statement that contradicts events there are consequences. For me, the consequences were being called last night by Bill Shorten and being asked to resign from my position in the Labor Senate organisational leadership."
In resigning from his positions, Dastyari said he would continue to work for the people of New South Wales.
Attorney-general George Brandis said that would not be the end of the matter.
On ABC's AM program this morning, Brandis said the matter would be pursued in the parliament.
Brandis would not say whether the government was investigating how information about the recorded conversation regarding phone tapping between Dastyari and Huang made it into the media.
"Well national security information should never find, I must say with all due respect to your profession, Sabra [Lane], it should never find its way into the hands of the media, but it has, due to the industry evidently of some Fairfax journalists," he said.