Call it smart, or perhaps crazy-brave. Noteworthy at least, that a government with a majority of just one chose right now to prosecute the most muscular case against a foreign power since the Cold War, while also contesting a byelection in a seat notable for that country's nationals.
So eager is the Turnbull government to increase Bill Shorten's pain over Sam Dastyari's China connections, that it has dialled to 11 its anti-Beijing espionage/influence warnings, potentially alienating swathes of voters in Bennelong this Saturday.
And right on cue, Labor's Kristina Keneally pounced, branding Malcolm Turnbull's utterances "China-phobic rhetoric" that is causing alarm locally and thus harming John Alexander, the Liberal candidate.
As business interests - including universities - shift uncomfortably in their seats over the anti-China sentiments emanating from Canberra, the Liberal Party seems to have concluded that its 10 per cent margin in the Sydney seat is enough to withstand a small exodus of Chinese-speaking voters who feel insulted on the grounds of race.
For embattled Liberals, Shorten's Dastyari problem is almost too good to be true - like manna from heaven.
Between the diminutive senator's exquisitely drawn-out demise, and the marriage equality win last week, the Turnbull government is feeling better about itself than it has all year.
But cost could yet be an issue. Unlikely as it is, a defeat in Bennelong would kill that morale stone dead, not to mention, erase its majority. If nothing else, Bennelong's trend-defying "no" vote in the marriage survey was a reminder of the electoral weight of its traditionalist Chinese and Korean populations.
Labor insiders are playing down their prospects, noting that 10 per cent is a healthy buffer and that byelections where MPs have been forced out due to an eligibility problem, such as Lindsay (1996) or New England (earlier this month), have usually produced swings to the "sitting" MP.
Close observers of the Chinese population say it is a multi-layered constituency anyway, warning it is less inclined to vote as a bloc than many presume.
Meanwhile, Shorten and colleagues are lumbered with the same trite talking points which emphasise, lamely, that Dastyari has already "paid a high price" for his contacts with wealthy Chinese benefactors and for the nature of those.
But do voters really consider losing an obscure responsibility as deputy Senate whip while keeping a $200k job to be "paying a high price?" Unlikely.
