After being ambushed at a Melbourne pub, Senator Sam Dastyari has sparked a national debate about racial intolerance.
Convicted stalker and racial vilifier Neil Erikson and a group of men calling themselves working-class patriots approached Iranian-born Senator Dastyari at Footscray bar VU on Wednesday night, where he was promoting his new book.
They heckled the senator - "You terrorist. You little monkey" - and demanded to know if he was a Muslim, during the confrontation which was captured on camera.
In a subsequent Q&A session with fellow Labor MP Tim Watts, Senator Dastyari said he was regularly subjected to such taunts.
"All of this is the rise of the radical right in this country, it is the rise of One Nation right," Senator Dastyari said in a video posted to his Facebook page.
"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."
Both the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten have condemned the verbal attack.
Mr Turnbull said there was no place for racial vilification in Australia.
"That is because our society is built on a foundation of mutual respect. It should have zero tolerance for racist abuse like this," he told the Seven Network.
Labor Leader Bill Shorten said he was disgusted by the "ugly" incident.
"What is this country coming to when you cannot go out for a meal without being abused by racist idiots," he said.
But One Nation leader Pauline Hanson refused to condemn the abuse and instead labelled the Senator Dastyari a "smart arse".
"He's played up this whole thing," she told reporters on the campaign trail in Queensland.
"I've got absolutely no time for him whatsoever - I think he's smart arse."
Senator Hanson's chief of staff James Ashby told AAP: "Sam Dastyari gets heckled because he's a wanker ... and not because he's a Muslim."
Senator Dastyari on Thursday said politics in Australia was heading to a "very, very ugly place" and attacks like the one he was subjected to "makes me feel small, makes me feel horrible, it makes you feel kind of terrible and that's what they are designed to do".
In 2014, Mr Erikson was ordered to do community service after pleading guilty to stalking a Melbourne rabbi.
He's also appealing a 2017 conviction for beheading a dummy outside a Bendigo council office in protest over plans to build a mosque.
Mr Erikson on Thursday defended his stunt and called Senator Dastyari a "sook" for complaining about the harassment.
He was filmed wearing a Toll logistics shirt, but the company says Erikson no longer works for them.
In Wednesday-night's incident the group also questioned Senator Dastyari over the Chinese donations scandal which cost him his spot on Labor's frontbench.
Senator Dastyari said he's considering a legal response to the incident, which may have infringed race discrimination laws.
Islamophobia and racism were getting worse in Australia on both the left and right of politics, he added.
