A senior Turnbull government minister suspects Australia hasn't heard the end of the saga around a Labor senator's involvement with Chinese donors.
But cabinet minister Peter Dutton says his assessment is based not on advice from intelligence agencies but what he knows of Labor powerbroker Sam Dastyari's history so far.
"My prediction is there will be a lot more that comes out in relation to Mr Dastyari," Mr Dutton told Sky News on Sunday.
"He's a shady figure. If he's a double agent he shouldn't be in the Australian Senate."
Asked whether this assessment was based on advice from Australia's spy agencies, the minister who is a member of cabinet's national security committee, said it was not and he would not comment on security information if it were available to him.
"I make it simply on the history of Sam Dastyari," Mr Dutton said.
The government has asked the Senate's powerful privileges committee to investigate Senator Dastyari's conduct.
The referral comes after it was revealed Senator Dastyari tipped off Chinese Communist Party-linked political donor Huang Xiangmo that his phone was probably being tapped by Australian agencies.
He is also in hot water after an audio recording surfaced of him defending Beijing's aggressive land grab in the South China Sea.
Labor leader Bill Shorten sacked him from his parliamentary leadership positions and has said his career is "going nowhere fast".
