Mr Turnbull seems to agree. In April his government rejected a bid by Dakang, a Chinese company, for S. Kidman and Co, a vast outback empire of cattle ranches that owns 2.5% of Australia’s agricultural land. Last month it turned down a joint bid by State Grid, a Chinese government-owned company, and Cheung Kong, of Hong Kong, for a 50.4% stake in Ausgrid, an electricity-distribution network in New South Wales, Australia’s biggest state. Scott Morrison, the most senior finance minister, said both bids were “contrary to the national interest”, without explaining how. Yet British firms own 7% of Australia’s agricultural land, without apparently damaging the national interest. And State Grid already owns stakes in electricity distributors in other parts of Australia. The rules have not changed since those investments were made but, judging by the uproar about Mr Dastyari, the mood has.