A vile video has surfaced overnight of prominent Labor MP Sam Dastyari being subjected to disgusting racist abuse by a far-right group in Melbourne.
The truly shocking footage shows Mr Dastyari trying to order a drink at the VU Bar in Footscray when he’s accosted and called a “monkey”, a “terrorist”, and told to “go back to Iran”.
The men, who identify themselves as “working class patriots”, posted the video of their abuse to the Patriot Blue Facebook group – you can watch at the top.
Mr Dastyari has been widely praised for his handling of the situation. He keeps his cool, goes back to his group and tells them he doesn’t deal with racists.
He later took to Facebook himself and suggested the political rhetoric of the One Nation Party encourages such behaviour.
“All of this is the rise of the radical right in this country, it is the rise of One Nation right,” Mr Dastyari said.
“These are people who feel incredibly empowered because of what Pauline Hanson has done for them. You dance so far to the right that it gives those a little bit further out a sense of entitlement.
“It’s what Trump has done in the US.”
Of course Pauline Hanson wasn’t going to take that accusation lying down. But she responded in such a Pauline Hanson way, we’re almost rendered speechless.
She decided to mock his appearance.
“What a joke, he’s nothing but a pipsqueak, and all he ever does is use my name to get publicity to actually sell his book,” she said.
“I think he’s a waste of space and I think he should be a comedian.
“I call him ‘Mr Bean’ because that’s exactly what he looks like, a little Mr Bean.”
“I think he’s a smart ass, he shows it on the floor of the parliament, and he plays up his position (as a Muslim), she continued.”
“Let him stand up for himself as I have done all these years myself. People may have their comments about me, my politics and what I say, but you know, he’s a big boy,” she said.
Oh, and we almost forgot, a very special mention goes to Labor MP Tim Watts for his handling of his colleague being racially abused. After the far-right men continually asked Mr Dastyari “What race is Isam?”, he put a rather eloquent question to them himself: “What race is d-ckhead?”
