The Hon Andrew Hastie MP
Shadow Minister For Defence
Shadow Minister For Defence Industry
Shadow Minister For Defence Personnel
Federal Member For Canning

TRANSCRIPT - ABC Radio Perth

1 APRIL 2025

E&OE

GARY ADSHEAD: Andrew Hastie, I'm not sure you're used to being punted, are you? Or is it going to be a thing during the election campaign?

ANDREW HASTIE: Good afternoon, Gary. Well, it's part of the job in politics. You get the odd hip and shoulder, but this one was entirely unjustified. And in that social media reel, which you played, I said it was the Department of Home Affairs. But in fact, they have clarified that they gave no such instruction to the City of Rockingham. So someone at the City of Rockingham is telling porky pies and they're doing the bidding of Labor because there is nowhere in the Citizenship Ceremonies Code where they could actually point to that would absolve them from kicking me out of this ceremony.

GARY ADSHEAD: Alright. Well, okay, I've got to be a bit forensic about all this now that you've just said that. Because yes, you did think that Home Affairs had sort of corresponded with the council and said that it's not appropriate to have you at this citizenship ceremony. Of course, Madeleine King, who is the Member for Brand and the Resources Minister, was there and the most senior politician, if you like, in that capacity. What I can tell you, though, Andrew, is this: that we have a statement from the City of Rockingham. They do say – and I'm cutting to the middle of it and I know that there's a bit before it, but I'm cutting to the middle of it – it says that protocols outlined in a circular received from the Department of Home Affairs on 31 March detailed the procedures to be followed for citizenship ceremonies during the election caretaker mode. So they also say that they did check on those protocols, they confirmed with the Department of Home Affairs that those protocols were correct, and therefore you were asked not to attend.

ANDREW HASTIE: Well, that's a porky pie. That's a lie. And the Department of Home Affairs has confirmed they gave no such instruction to the City of Rockingham. Now the mayor personally told me, via text, that this was sent out to local governments across the area at 8am yesterday. I've checked with the Shire of Murray, I've checked with the Shire of Serpentine Jarrahdale – no such circular was delivered. So we're yet to see the correspondence from Home Affairs that was allegedly sent to the City of Rockingham. It sounds like this is a Labor dominated council, and they're doing the bidding of Labor. Let's be frank here – that's what I want people to understand. This is a political decision, and it shouldn't be, because these are non-partisan events, and I'm a sitting member with a good number of suburbs from the City of Rockingham now in Canning.

GARY ADSHEAD: Ok, just so people understand it, citizenship ceremonies happen often, and I'm sure you have been to plenty of them. You genuinely expected, because you received notification, as I understand it, back in February, of citizenship ceremonies that were coming up, and you accepted the March invitation, that you would have been there. You could have gone there, couldn't you, Andrew? You just might not have spoken. Would that be a fair comment?

ANDREW HASTIE: Well, the Mayor of Rockingham said I was a candidate – I'm actually a sitting member – and she said I could still attend as a private citizen. The point is, Gary, that this is just partisan politics. This is, you know, the City of Rockingham, and the mayor doing the bidding of Labor. I'll give you an example. Less than two weeks ago, I attended the Shire of Serpentine Jarrahdale which now takes in the seat of Burt, which is Matt Keogh, the sitting Labor member and Canning. The Shire President of SJ is actually a Liberal member, and he invited Matt Keogh, the Labor member, to give a speech in front of everyone and we were happy to do that because it's a non-partisan event. And so, it's just very peculiar, having accepted the invitation to speak last night, that the invitation, which was withdrawn inexplicably, and then they pointed to the Department of Home Affairs, which we know isn't true now.

GARY ADSHEAD: Yeah, okay, because they accept that – that you did receive an invitation to speak and attend. The council have accepted that in a statement that we've received. Do you think that Madeleine King, she wouldn't have had anything to do with stopping you, would she?

ANDREW HASTIE: Who knows? It is a Labor dominated area, and sadly, I've seen this quite a bit lately – councils getting more and more influenced by Labor in their decision making. They should be independent, they should be community minded, and particularly with citizenship ceremonies, which are meant to be non-partisan. That's the only reason I can give as to why I was punted by the City of Rockingham last night.

GARY ADSHEAD: Alright, well, we went to Madeleine King just to check what the situation there as the Member for Brand and of course, you know, very rooted in Rockingham is Madeleine. She said she was honoured to attend – or a spokesperson said – she was honoured to attend and speak at the ceremony and thank the new citizens who are residents of Brand for their commitment to our country. Questions around attendance should be directed to the council.

ANDREW HASTIE: There you go. So who knows what the story is, but someone's telling porky pies, and I suspect it's someone who's done the will of Labor. I just want it to be fair for all. I want it to be non-partisan. And I'm proud to see people take citizenship, we pay respect to them by attending. That's the whole role of an MP and I should have been there.

GARY ADSHEAD: And that's regardless of whether we're in an election campaign –

ANDREW HASTIE: Correct!

GARY ADSHEAD: – and we're in a caretaker situation. It shouldn't matter?

ANDREW HASTIE: It shouldn't matter at all. It shouldn't matter at all, and it doesn't matter according to the code, and that's where the City of Rockingham has fallen foul.

GARY ADSHEAD: Alright, well, look, we've gone to Deb Hamblin, who's the mayor, so we'll absolutely give her a right of reply, if she'd like to take it. Can I get to some other matters with you, although I can tell that you're disappointed that that didn't go as it should have done. Can I just get to some other matters? I just spoke to someone who's a bit of an expert on the style of ship, this research ship, the Chinese one that's off our shore. She says that we shouldn't really be overly concerned. Other than the sort of route that it's taking at the moment, there's nothing unusual in these sort of research ships being out there in the waters and indeed, it had been ported and sitting in New Zealand in a harbour for a little while there and working with New Zealand vessels. So what's the big deal?

ANDREW HASTIE: Well, I mean, that's the point of a so-called research ship – they build a certain profile that gets them below the threshold. The question is, why are they in our EEZ, and what are they researching in the bottom of the ocean? It just so happens that one of our submarine cables is along their route. So I think it's pretty obvious what's happening, but our real issue is not with the ship, it's with the Prime Minister's response. We think Anthony Albanese is weak on national security, and he's at pains to explain away this ship. He says, "I'd rather it not be there" but then he draws a false equivalence with our Royal Australian Navy doing freedom of navigation exercises in the South China Sea. They're not equivalent at all, and it disrespects our naval personnel who serve our country so well.

GARY ADSHEAD: But what could you do to a ship that's, you know, outside of our economic zone at the moment, what could you do? I mean, there's nothing you can say about it, given that it's a research ship, could you?

ANDREW HASTIE: Well, you can ask questions of the government to which it belongs, and this would be our point as well – the Prime Minister has shown weakness over the last three years. Whether it's our naval personnel or Air Force personnel being bullied by the Chinese navy Air Force, we saw a flotilla circumnavigate our continent only weeks ago, and now we have this research ship. At every point, the Prime Minister has taken the weaker option, rather than standing up for our sovereignty, our interests and mutual respect.

GARY ADSHEAD: Alright, just finally, I spoke at the beginning of the program about some comments that Peter Dutton had made. I mean, he sort of hinted at it during his Budget in Reply speech, and then he sort of confirmed more detail to a Sky town hall forum yesterday, as you know, where he said that, you know, our education – the curriculum – should be about basics, should be about education and nothing more. And that funding could be tied to issues that he might have with some of the he said, indoctrination that's going on in some of our schools. What do you say to that?

ANDREW HASTIE: Well, I think there has been a politicisation of the education system, whether we see that at high school or in universities particularly, and we should be focused on becoming world leaders at numeracy and literacy for our kids – that's the way we build our prosperity and security in the future. And so it's right to insist that our kids aren't taught what to think, but they're taught how to think. There's a lot of time after 18 for politics if you want to go down that path. But we should be focusing on teaching the fundamentals to our kids so they can be world leaders in whatever field they take up, but particularly in areas where we have critical advantages. That's what we're insisting on. And I think states that insist on politicising the curriculum should be held to account, and that's what Peter Dutton was saying.

GARY ADSHEAD: Can you give me an example then of what you think would be the politicisation of our curriculum and our school system?

ANDREW HASTIE: Well, I think you don't need to look any further than our universities with the way it's just become an unsafe place for a lot of Jewish students, particularly Jewish Australian students. We've seen the outgrowth of little Gazas, of tent cities, of protesters, and you know, that's a big problem. So again, we need to focus on the fundamentals – numeracy and literacy – and just making sure that no political point of view is taught. We should be insisting on neutrality and exposing kids to a lot of ideas so they can make up their own minds.

GARY ADSHEAD: But university has always been a hotbed of radicalism, and, you know, some way out of control in terms of what people might want to protest about. But I'm talking about our primary and secondary schools. I mean, I'm trying to figure out where any indoctrination is going on there about anything, that's all.

ANDREW HASTIE: Well, they're good questions to ask, and I'm sure there are plenty of examples out there that we can point to. I'm standing at the rooftop of Midland Gate shopping mall at the moment, Gary, so I don't have a whole lot of detail at my fingertips. But what I can say is that we should be insisting on superior numeracy and literacy, teaching kids how to think, not what to think. And I would be happy for kids to be exposed to all political point of views, all religious point of views in their political and moral formation, but to insist on one, or to slant this curriculum so it focuses on one side of politics, that's what we don't want to see.

GARY ADSHEAD: Andrew Hastie, I'll let you get off the roof there. Thank you very much for joining us.

ANDREW HASTIE: Thanks, Gary. Cheers.

ENDS