THE HON ANDREW HASTIE MP
FEDERAL MEMBER FOR CANNING

TRANSCRIPT

INTERVIEW WITH MARK LEVY, 2GB

Friday 7 November 2025

Topics: Thai cuisine; Liberal Party; net zero; paid parental leave; Mike Burgess’ Lowy Institute speech; rugby league.

E&OE……………………………………

MARK LEVY: Andrew, good morning to you.

ANDREW HASTIE: Good morning, Mark. Great to be with you.

MARK LEVY: You too, mate. Look, there's a fair bit of serious stuff to get to, but I just wanted to start off with a light-hearted one. You know this dinner that you've had with Angus Taylor, what was on the menu? Because I know a few people in Canberra who rave about that Thai restaurant. They tell me it's a pretty good feed. Would you agree?

ANDREW HASTIE: Yeah, Mark. I rocked up a bit late, so some of the lads had already ordered the banquet, so I just took what was left on the table, which was a bit of larb chicken, bit of massaman beef. But the bloke who wrote up the story – someone tipped him off at the restaurant, and then he spent 500 words speculating on what we might or might not have said. But there was nothing to it. It was just good friends catching up for a bit of Thai.

MARK LEVY: So no need for us to read into leadership, speculation, all that sort of thing?

ANDREW HASTIE: It's hardly a scoop. We were sitting literally outside, visible to the public eye, so anyone could have written that story on their Facebook. It wasn't like it was a massive scoop or anything. Unhelpful speculation in a week where we trying to get on with business.

MARK LEVY: You're all heading back to Canberra next week. I know one of your colleagues isn't too happy about all of that, but we seem to be getting somewhere on net zero. How do you feel about getting back to Canberra to sort all of this mess out?

ANDREW HASTIE: My preference was to do it in 10 days or so, but the call is the Leader's. I made that clear. It's not overly convenient for Western Australian members flying over on Remembrance Day, so I'll have to withdraw from a local event here. But we've got to get this energy stuff sorted, and it's critical we do because we're not in the fight until we have a clear position on energy.

MARK LEVY: Well, given your history as an SAS soldier, I mean, Remembrance Day is very, very important, and having to pull out of an event, I have no doubt, would be bitterly disappointing for you because it's one of the most important days on the calendar.

ANDREW HASTIE: It is, and I love my veteran community. They're great people – as you would know in Sydney and all over the country, in fact – and I love my local RSL as well. So I'll have a pint somewhere else.

MARK LEVY: Alright. Well, Sarah Henderson. I've got to ask you about her comments today, and I know Angus Taylor and Dave Sharma have rejected what she's had to say, and that is that Sussan Ley is losing support in the party room. Here is what she's had to say on Sky this morning.

*EXCERPT PLAYS*

MARK LEVY: I've got to ask you for your response, Andrew Hastie. Your thoughts?

ANDREW HASTIE: I think we can turn things around, and the thing we have to do is come to a position on Net Zero. That's my singular focus. Until we sort that out, it doesn't matter who leads the party – we're not in the fight. Our focus has to be getting cheaper power prices for Australian families, businesses and industry. If we don't do that, our country is just going to keep going backwards. That's why next week and resolving the question is so important. That's why I'm dropping everything to fly to Canberra and get it done.

MARK LEVY: It's interesting. On the whole net zero thing, the side note to this is all of the speculation and this push from the Albanese Government to host this COP31 Summit. You know, we're told there's a billion-dollar price tag on it. All the while, we've got Australians struggling in the midst of a cost of living crisis. There's been some analysis done on what we could put that billion dollars towards. And not only that, the carbon emissions that will be produced by all of those people flying to Australia. Doesn't it just highlight that the government's priorities are all over the place at the moment when, apparently, they want to save the planet and the environment?

ANDREW HASTIE: I've always said that Net Zero is hypocritical for Australians – especially for the government – to pursue. They enjoy all the revenue that comes from exporting 25 per cent of the world's coal, 20 per cent of the world's gas to the world's biggest and fastest growing emitters – countries like China, India, Korea, Japan. And so then to lecture the Australian people and deny those very fossil fuels to fuel our own economy is the height of moral hypocrisy. These guys – Labor – these guys are for the top end of town. That's what COP is all about – the top end of town flying down under on their private jets and lecturing us on how we need to go green. It's as simple as that. So you know – your listeners – watch very carefully what Labor does from here because if they land this COP, it's going to be the top end of town down under, lecturing us all on how bad we are because we're not going green enough, quick enough.

MARK LEVY: Let's get away from sort of net zero and climate change and everything else. Another issue that sort of reared its head, and you've made some comments on all of this, is the paid parental leave and changes to it. It seems you've upset some people after intervening in the debate last week about extending parental leave to those who had still born babies, or had babies that died in infancy, and question whether it would apply to late term abortions. It's been interpreted, Andrew, as you're questioning if women would deliberately terminate a baby to collect government money. Is that what you meant?

ANDREW HASTIE: Mark, it's a good question, and I'm happy to answer it. I supported the Bill, and I shared a story with the permission of one of my close friends here in Perth. He and his wife lost a little boy stillborn. He shared that story with me while we're going out cycling, actually. It wasn't until I went into his living room and I saw the moulds of the little hands and feet. So, I wanted to make sure this Bill got to the right people. I believe that life begins with conception. I believe life is sacrosanct, and I wanted to make sure that it wouldn't apply to late term abortions. I simply asked a question and there are journalists out there who love to misrepresent people. If people actually read my speech, they'll find that I asked this question in very respectful manner. So look, there's people out there trying to build a narrative – that's fine, this is public life – but I go to Parliament and I try to exercise my conscience every time I vote, and I want to make sure that I can do so. I asked the question, therefore, in good faith.

MARK LEVY: Alright, we've been through a few other issues. National security – the ASIO boss Mike Burgess this week delivered a sobering speech, Andrew, to the Lowy Institute where he warned there are at least three nations willing and capable of hiring criminals to assassinate a perceived dissident in Australia. I spoke to strategic policy expert Peter Jennings, who said, Mark, it's more than three. This is more than serious, Andrew, and the other thing that Peter said is the government is clearly not doing enough to deal with this threat, which is very real.

ANDREW HASTIE: It is and I've been working in the national security space all my career. But in the Parliament, I was in the Intelligence and Security Committee for almost a decade. I know Mike Burgess very well. I've been to a lot of his threat updates, and this latest revelation is very concerning – people willing to conduct political assassinations on Australian soil. We've got an increase in terrorism, espionage and foreign interference and I don't think the government takes this seriously enough. They should be resourcing ASIO and the AFP, but they should be talking about it as well, because this is an issue that all Australians need to understand. We saw what happened in the UK. We've seen the Russians conducting very public political assassinations there. We don't want this down under. We are a great country, but we do have to be on guard against these developments.

MARK LEVY: We move to rugby league, believe it or not. We've already started the campaign to make you the number one ticket holder of the Perth Bears. That's a work in progress, just leave that one with me. You're also lending your support to the addition of the Papua New Guinea Chiefs. But there's a lot more to this than just the game of rugby league. Can you explain a little bit more on what you've had to say this week in Canberra about it?

ANDREW HASTIE: Yeah, Mark, I'm a big believer in Papua New Guinea. I love the country. I did a lot of training up there. It's really a great idea that we're committing $600 million to build a rugby league team, the PNG Chiefs. And I just wanted to nest that decision within the larger geopolitical framework, and that is that countries like China are trying to move into our backyard in the Pacific Island chain. We have such a great connection with our Pacific Islands, largely cultural through a shared Christian heritage, but secondly, through the sport of rugby league, particularly with Papua New Guinea. So I just want to put that on the record and make clear that it's a great opportunity, and we should be backing it. Just like Labor backed AUKUS, I'm backing Anthony Albanese's decision to back this rugby league team in the NRL.

MARK LEVY: Did you back the winner of the Melbourne Cup, before you go?

ANDREW HASTIE: I've got to say, last time I backed a winner was Doriemus in 1995. I was 13 years old and I told my English teacher: put money on Doriemus and Nothin’ Leica Dane, and he won. But I've had no luck since. I'm not a big bloke on the horses.

MARK LEVY: I did a phantom call here on this show earlier in the week, Andrew. What did you think of Michael McCormack's political phantom call? I saw you got to mention in the phantom call.

ANDREW HASTIE: MickMack is great. He missed his calling. I was standing behind him, and just the energy he was able to direct through that microphone, it was brilliant. I loved it.

MARK LEVY: Suck it up to the Speaker, though, by making Milton Dick win but anyway, that's a story for another day. Andrew, thanks for joining us, mate. Very good of you to agree to come on today, given the interruptions yesterday in Canberra, and we'll do it again a couple of weeks.

ANDREW HASTIE: Sounds good, Mark. For the record, it was 40 votes yesterday, so that's why we didn't make it happen.

MARK LEVY: Forty votes. Wow. Good on you mate.

[ENDS]