But sometimes events just get overthought. Hastie has confided in some there was no ulterior motive and his speech should be taken at face value.

Doing so reveals a man deeply troubled by what he sees in Beijing's actions and the corrosive impact they have on Australia's democracy.

In his speech, Hastie lumped China and Russia together as "authoritarian states" who posed a threat to democratic institutions such as press freedom and national sovereignty.

"In Australia it is clear that the Chinese Communist Party is working to covertly interfere with our media and universities and also to influence our political processes and public debates," Hastie told parliament.

He then turned his attention to Chau, a property developer who Hastie said has donated $4 million to both sides of politics since 2004 and $45 million to universities.

According to Hastie, Chau had been given the codename CC-3 (standing for co-conspirator three) in an unsealed indictment by the US Attorney's office concerning attempts by Chinese business figures to bribe former UN president John Ashe. Chau allegedly provided $US200,000 for Ashe to attend a conference in his home city of Guangzhou.

While Hastie's speech had an element of high drama, the indictment has been available on the internet for several years and Chau's alleged involvement has been reported. (Chau has maintained his innocence and has never been charged over the alleged bribe, launching the aforementioned defamation action).

Hastie justified his use of parliamentary privilege to shine "sunlight" on Chau's alleged involvement, saying defamation cases have a "chilling effect" on a free press.


"I share it with the House because I believe it to be in the national interest. My duty first and foremost is to the Australian people and to the preservation of the ideals and democratic traditions of our Commonwealth," Hastie said.

Hastie takes his duty to Australia seriously, first as a soldier then a lawmaker. At his heart, Hastie is an uber-patriot. This is a guy who decided as an 18-year-old that he was going to join the army the day after the September 11 terrorist attacks.

And with that patriotism comes a deep appreciation of the US alliance. Hastie, who is married to an American, heads up Parliament's US friendship group. Given the tendency to boil down the foreign policy debate in Australia to a binary choice between the US and China, Hastie firmly lines up on the side of the Eagles.

He is also deeply principled. Hastie, a devout Christian, has a strong sense of right and wrong, and is not afraid to stand up for his values. When he was announced as the Liberals star recruit for the Canning byelection in 2015, word leaked out that three Special Forces soldiers under Hastie's command had cut off the hands of three Taliban fighters to identify them by their fingerprints.

The inference was Hastie had been complicit. In fact, once he had learnt of the soldiers' actions, Hastie instructed his troops not to do it again and reported the incident up the chain of command.

Hastie has declined to elaborate on his speech, preferring to let the words speak for themselves. One of close colleagues, however, told Perspective that Hastie felt it was his moral duty to speak out on Chinese interference, which has been increasingly worrying him for some months.

"This is a guy who put his life on the line for freedom so we can have our say," the MP said.

Others within the government are less charitable, annoyed that Hastie overshadowed efforts to sell the budget in Parliament and undercut the attempts to ease tensions with Beijing. Hastie did not give a heads up to Turnbull or Bishop that his speech was coming so they had no chance to dissuade him.


Hastie's speech also produced splits within Labor. Bill Shorten dedicated his first three questions to the matter on Wednesday to suggest Hastie had gone rogue, while shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus suggested US officials including the Federal Bureau of Investigation would be reluctant to share secret information with Australian parliamentarians in the future. But backbenchers Anthony Byrne, Hastie's deputy chair of the intelligence committee, and Michael Danby, another China hawk, backed Hastie.

As for the Americans, the US Embassy sent a reassuring message that diplomatic relations were as strong as ever.

While US officials might have appreciated a heads-up, it is hard to see just why they would be miffed given what Hastie was available publicly elsewhere. It seems they had no issues with Hastie's speech, which coincides with Washington's own moves to push back against Beijing.

Using parliamentary privilege can be an isolating task but in this case, Hastie has joined a swelling chorus of alarm over China.