THE HON ANDREW HASTIE MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR HOME AFFAIRS
FEDERAL MEMBER FOR CANNING

TRANSCRIPT

INTERVIEW WITH TOM ELLIOTT, 3AW

Friday 8 August 2025

Topics: Burke approves visa of alleged Hamas supporter, Labor lowers visa English test requirements.

E&OE……………………………………

TOM ELLIOTT: Our next guest is the opposition's Home Affairs spokesman. Andrew Hastie, good morning.

ANDREW HASTIE: Good morning, Tom. Good to be with you.

TOM ELLIOTT: Well, thanks for joining us. So first, the woman who has expressed support for Hamas and looks like she's getting a visa to come to Australia. I mean, should it just be black and white? If you say that you support a prescribed terrorist organisation, you don't get to come here.

ANDREW HASTIE: One hundred per cent it's black and white. She's not welcome. If she supports Hamas and the violent attacks both murdering, raping Israelis on October 7, she is not welcome. We don't want these sorts of people in our country. It's as simple as that.

TOM ELLIOTT: But it wouldn't just be Hamas. I mean, it would be Islamic State, I don't know if the IRA is still going around, I think that that's all sorted out now. But any official terror group.

ANDREW HASTIE: There's a full galaxy of Islamic terrorists. Anyone who supports them, we don't want them in this country. Simple as that.

TOM ELLIOTT: But non-Islamic terror groups as well. Just so we're clear?

ANDREW HASTIE: Of course. But we're talking about Middle Eastern violence here – Islamic State, Hamas, Hezbollah – these sorts of terror groups. I just want to be very clear.

TOM ELLIOTT: What about, I think, the Sydney protest last weekend, there was at least one and possibly more pictures of the leader of Iran. Now, I don't know if you could call him a terrorist, but certainly his government supports those terror groups. Does that pass the pub test with you?

ANDREW HASTIE: No, it doesn't. We saw the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, a picture of him held above some fairly significant Australians at that protest. And of course, Iran has been the state sponsor of Hamas, Hezbollah, of the Houthis and other terror groups in the Middle East, striking not just the Israelis, but other Western interests as well. I have a big problem with this, as do many Australians. What I'm saying to you right now, Tom, this is just mainstream Australian perspectives.

TOM ELLIOTT: Yeah, one of the prominent Australians you might be thinking of is former New South Wales Premier and federal government minister, Bob Carr.

ANDREW HASTIE: That's right. Terrible judgment and hypocrisy on his part. It's hypocritical – campaigning for peace, standing with a picture of Ali Khomeini above you. It defies belief.

TOM ELLIOTT: I know. I do wonder about the intelligence of some of those people. Now, speaking of intelligence, what about English? Now, obviously, you know English and Australian English can be hard to learn and hard to understand. But I mean, to me it seems odd that there's a test and you can score as few as 26 points out of 120 which is a mark of 21.7 per cent, and yet that's enough. I mean, do we need to think a bit more about people's English language capability before letting them in?

ANDREW HASTIE: Democracy only survives when you have some standards, right? We all speak English, but for democracy to function in this country, we all have to have a good working knowledge of the English language, number one. Number two, we need to all uphold the same beliefs – liberty under law, parliamentary democracy, respect for one another, protecting minorities – all those values which we hold dear as Australians, the fair go being the shorthand for a lot of that. And so my fear is that if we lower English standards, we actually compromise, long term, our democracy. But the bigger picture here, Tom, is that the Albanese Labor Government is throttling out on immigration. In the first two years, they let more than a million people into this country, 70 per cent higher than any other two-year period in history.

TOM ELLIOTT: I agree. We've got to wind that back. Look, we are out of time. I do appreciate your time. Opposition Home Affairs spokesman, Andrew Hastie.

[ENDS]