THE HON ANDREW HASTIE MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR INDUSTRY AND SOVEREIGN CAPABILITY
FEDERAL MEMBER FOR CANNING

TRANSCRIPT
INTERVIEW WITH SARAH FERGUSON, 7.30

Monday 24 August 2026

Topics: GST; Secret Harbour by-election; immigration policy; data centres.   

E&OE……………………………………

SARAH FERGUSON: Andrew Hastie joins me now from Perth. Andrew Hastie, welcome.

ANDREW HASTIE: Good evening, Sarah.

SARAH FERGUSON: Roger Cook says all Western Australians will be relieved to hear Anthony Albanese say there will be no changes to the GST as long as he's Prime Minister. Are you relieved?

ANDREW HASTIE: I'm glad he's come to our position. The Coalition legislated that floor of 75 cents back in 2018, and it's good to hear that he's re-committed to it because we will always stand up for WA, and the Coalition is committed to the current arrangements.

SARAH FERGUSON: Now, the Productivity Commission's interim report, which the previous Liberal government commissioned, it says the deal is so bad it should be scrapped – it doesn't achieve the crucial thing that the GST is there for to achieve equity across Australia. The Prime Minister appears to be sticking to the deal for reasons of political advantage. Are you doing the same?

ANDREW HASTIE: No, I think the way it was arranged prior to our change in 2018 was fundamentally unfair – it was punishing productive and prosperous states like Western Australia. I think the 75-cent floor should stay, and it should also signal to other states and territories to get on with building their own economies and increasing their productivity and prosperity. That's why we're sticking with the current arrangement. That's our position.

SARAH FERGUSON: Alright. Let's talk about the by-election. We just saw that story just now. Obviously, this is a seat which overlaps your federal seat. If voters are discontented in Canning, or in Secret Harbour, why are they choosing One Nation instead of the Liberal Party?

ANDREW HASTIE: The people I represent are largely the forgotten people. We're outer metropolitan here, we're south of Perth about an hour – it's actually an hour and a half now with all the congestion that we experience on the roads – and people feel like they've been let down by the state Labor Government. It's a 10-year state Labor Government, and they want action, which is why I think it's really important that the Liberal Party fights hard. We've had swings in all the booths in Secret Harbour over the last year – we had swings towards us in the state election last year, and I had double-digit swings in the federal election. I even flipped Labor booths – long-standing historical Labor booths – last year. So I think there is a strong story for the Liberal Party, but we've just got to fight. We've got to fight for every single vote. Whenever I enter a contest, I want to win, and I think that should be our message in this by-election.

SARAH FERGUSON: Just before I come to that message, but if that discontent is as widespread as you say it is, you didn't quite answer the question on why people are choosing, as the polls are suggesting, to back One Nation instead of the Liberals.

ANDREW HASTIE: You're absolutely right, Sarah. It's clear that One Nation are ahead – I've heard that from Labor, I've heard it from our side, and the experience on pre-poll suggests that. I think that major parties have to do a better job of responding to Australians and what they're concerned about. That's why our plan at the federal level deals with many of the challenges. We want lower taxes, we want cheaper energy, we want to cut migration and build more homes. And in places like Secret Harbour, people are feeling the pressure from those things acutely. That's why we've got to deliver for these people. They're the ones who are experiencing congestion on the roads, overwhelmed essential services like our hospitals and our GPs, and there's a housing crisis down here. If you come down to the beach here in my electorate, sadly you'll find people sleeping in their cars because they can't get into a home. That's why people are frustrated.

SARAH FERGUSON: Are you suggesting that the state Liberal Party is not fighting hard enough? That they're running dead in order to help One Nation against Labor?

ANDREW HASTIE: Look, this is a state election contested on state issues, and I don't accept this idea that a win for One Nation is a win for the Liberal Party. We're fighting for our lives, and we should be fighting for every single vote in Secret Harbour.

SARAH FERGUSON: And are you suggesting – I beg your pardon – there is a little delay, so it's a bit harder to jump in there. But are you suggesting that the state Liberal Party is not fighting hard enough?

ANDREW HASTIE: Basil Zempilas said that a win for One Nation would be an opportunity. I don't see that at all. I think we should be fighting to win in every contest we enter, or we shouldn't enter the contest. And I think that we've done a lot of work, we've known about this by-election since December of last year – I announced to my Canning division in January that we should expect a by-election – so we've had time to prep the ground. We've got an outstanding candidate in Ryan Robertson – a former submariner, a small business owner, a local councillor in in the area, young family as well. He's representative of the community at large, so we should be fighting to win this. And the lesson from the 2021 state election is, you don't wave the white flag. Voters sense weakness, and they'll go to the strong horse if you signal weakness.

SARAH FERGUSON: And that's what you think that Basil Zempilas is doing in Western Australia – he's waving a white flag?

ANDREW HASTIE: Well, I think we could have signalled to voters that we're fighting for them, we're fighting for a better deal for outer metropolitan Western Australians, and that we will deliver for them. That's been my message consistently over the last 11 years. I'm very passionate about my community. I love delivering train stations, I love delivering funding for hospitals, for roads – getting things done. That's what we've got to focus on in the outer metropolitan communities across Australia if we want to form government.

SARAH FERGUSON: So, if the WA Liberal Leader Basil Zempilas has got the wrong strategy, the question follows is why? Is he doing this because he's concerned about upsetting Gina Rinehart, who one would assume would be pushing for a One Nation win in Secret Harbour?

ANDREW HASTIE: It's no secret that Gina Rinehart backs One Nation. For that question, though, you'd have to put that to Basil Zempilas yourself.

SARAH FERGUSON: But does that make sense that that's why they're running an underpowered campaign – that he doesn't want to put offside such a powerful figure in the state?

ANDREW HASTIE: Again, your theory, Sarah, not mine. I can only focus on what I know and what I can control, and that is: when we step out into an election campaign, we fight for every single vote, and we fight for the Liberal Party because we want to win on primary vote. It's also a two-party preferred system, but ultimately, we should be fighting for every single primary vote we can get.

SARAH FERGUSON: Have you told the state Leader that he's running the wrong kind of strategy in this by-election?

ANDREW HASTIE: I was asked last week in the Australian Financial Review what my views were, and I made them pretty clear. I don't think that we see eye to eye on the political strategy, but that's okay. I'm the Member for Canning; it's a state election, and it's a test for the state Leader and the Opposition.

SARAH FERGUSON: There's been revelations over the weekend of further changeability in One Nation's immigration policy. I'm just interested to ask you, Andrew Hastie, if you think voters notice when a policy chops and changes as much as this one has.

ANDREW HASTIE: It is all over the place, and I think it highlights a big schism inside One Nation. On one hand, you've got Labor who has lost control of our borders and our immigration program, and then on the other hand, you've got One Nation who can't arrive on a figure they all agree upon. You had David Farley yesterday out on Insiders, telling us all that the One Nation net overseas migration figure is closer to 230,000 and is on par with Labor's. Now, I'm sure James Ashby got on the phone to him afterwards and told him to stick to the cartoons and the memes. But for the Coalition, our position is that brain rot is no substitute for considered modelling and costing when it comes to policy work.

SARAH FERGUSON: Just this evening, actually, there's a story about David Farley – the MP who you mentioned, who was on Insiders at the weekend. He walked into a Liberal Party meeting room last week. Realising his mistake, he says he made a joke and said, "I could see myself sitting here." Do you think David Farley is a more natural Liberal?

ANDREW HASTIE: I think David Farley is a regional leader. He's a decent fellow, I've met him a couple of times, and I think he would have been offended by James Ashby going on News 24 last night with a mop and essentially mocking his – what I thought – thoughtful contribution on Insiders yesterday. I was grateful that David Farley was more honest about the numbers, and it shows that he's got a good brain. I don't know what his intentions are, he's a member of One Nation, but certainly let's see what the future holds.

SARAH FERGUSON: Just on National Cabinet this week, it's going to have a focus on data centres and, in particular, the power that's going to drive those centres. The Energy Market Operator says the cheapest way to provide power for AI data centres is via renewables and gas firming, but do you want to see more coal used instead?

ANDREW HASTIE: I'm very agnostic about what sort of energy we use, whether it's coal, whether it's gas – I'd like to see the moratorium on nuclear power lifted, and see the birth of a civil industry in this country. The truth is, in the United States, there's a rush to buy gas turbines and install them to power the data centre revolution in the United States, and there's a three to five-year wait now for gas turbines. So, I think the market is signalling the cheapest way to generate the power required for the energy intensity of data centres is through gas or nuclear power. Now, we don't have nuclear; we have gas, we have coal – that's our natural advantage – and of course, mixed in with renewables, I think we can get the job done. But to pretend that it's just renewables alone, I don't think stacks up, and it's more fanciful thinking.

SARAH FERGUSON: Just to be clear on your position, are you suggesting the construction of new coal-fired power stations to be part of the energy mix to service energy-hungry data centres?

ANDREW HASTIE: No, I would like to see an energy-agnostic approach. This is all about getting cheaper power to the Australian people – to families, businesses, and industry. We need to be agnostic about the forms of energy, and we are unashamedly pursuing cheaper power over climate targets. That's our energy policy. We're out of Net Zero, and we're going to deliver cheaper power bills to the Australian people.

SARAH FERGUSON: Alright, we'll return to that topic and the complexities of the energy system another time. But in the meantime, Andrew Hastie, thank you very much indeed for joining us.

ANDREW HASTIE: Thanks, Sarah.

[ENDS]