THE HON ANDREW HASTIE MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR DEFENCE
SHADOW MINISTER FOR DEFENCE INDUSTRY
SHADOW MINISTER FOR DEFENCE PERSONNEL
FEDERAL MEMBER FOR CANNING

TRANSCRIPT
INTERVIEW WITH PETA CREDLIN, SKY NEWS

MONDAY 12 AUGUST 2024

Topics: Defence, Richard Marles’ petty political stunt, ASIO Director-General comments, Palestinian visas.

E&OE…

PETA CREDLIN: Joining me now to discuss his plan and more from this area, Shadow Defence Minister Andrew Hastie. Andrew welcome. Depending on when the election is held, we’re talking about at most a couple of years here, what’s your plan to be able to build up our capabilities and our personnel in such a short timeframe?

ANDREW HASTIE: Good evening, Peta. Well, the question we're asking is, what can we fix by 2026? If you look at what's happened over the last two years in Ukraine and Israel, we can see that the character of warfare has changed. We're seeing mass and quantity. We're seeing lots of cheaply produced weapons on the battlefield, and that's changed the way people are fighting. One of the things that we're also seeing is that war is now attritional. We're basically seeing the US industrial base pitted against the industrial bases of China, Russia and Iran and we're seeing Israel and Ukraine running down their war stocks and being dependent on the US. What we need to do is invest in our industrial base, back Australian defence industry, and we need to produce air defence, we need to produce counter unmanned aerial systems, we need to produce drones, electronic warfare capabilities, and also long-range fires which are just as applicable in the Indo Pacific, as they are in the Middle East and the battlefields of Eastern Europe.

PETA CREDLIN: I think most people at home would be listening to your comments about a homegrown defence industry as a no-brainer. I guess the challenge is – and you know this well – when Defence procurement get involved, they make it too complicated, they shift out deadlines, they blow out the Budget. In addition to what we can build and develop here in Australia, are you open – is the Coalition open – to buying off the shelf if we have to, to get the kit and capabilities as quickly as we need?

ANDREW HASTIE: Of course. It's not an either-or question, it's a both-and. Of course, we need off the shelf capabilities and that's what we're doing with AUKUS, we're buying Virginia-class submarines. But we also need to back the Australian defence industry, we need to rebuild our industrial muscle, and we need to be able to produce things because we can't always rely upon the US, and other allies, to produce our munitions and our weapon systems. One thing we can do – we're a nation of 27 million people – we can invest in these things, and we can produce things. Because they're cheap and they're mass produced, we can build asymmetric capabilities which will give us an edge over the next three to four years and which will help build our self-reliance and our ability to survive in a conflict.

PETA CREDLIN: You mentioned AUKUS there, I listened to the Deputy Prime Minister, the Defence Minister, Richard Marles today in Question Time. Pretty scathing about the Coalition and AUKUS. Of course, the Coalition are the ones who developed and signed AUKUS but you wouldn’t know it if you listened to Richard Marles. Let’s have a listen.

*EXCERPT PLAYS*

PETA CREDLIN: Andrew Hastie, your response?

ANDREW HASTIE: I thought it was pretty childish. I think AUKUS is the most consequential thing the Coalition government did in office. It's a national endeavour, it's bipartisan, it's multi-generational, and it's got to be above cheap, political point scoring, which is exactly what Richard Marles did in Parliament today. We need to be working together to make this thing happen. It's his job to implement it and we give the project bipartisan support. So instead of landing cheap blows in Parliament, he should be focused on the job. And I can tell you, there's a lot of work to be done, not just with the federal government, but also with the WA state government. I called on them last week to establish an AUKUS Minister in the state Cabinet to get the thing rolling because Labor have dropped the ball on AUKUS.

PETA CREDLIN: Let’s go to comments from the ASIO boss, Mike Burgess, yesterday that harbouring Hamas sympathies, he said, is not necessarily a deal breaker when it comes to getting an Australian visa. Have a listen.

*EXCERPT PLAYS*

PETA CREDLIN: Your colleague, James Paterson, doesn’t agree at all. He says the only acceptable number of Hamas supporters in Australia is zero. The ASIO boss talked about security checks, but he made the admission that they only check those that are referred to them, and we know not many get referred on. You’re one of the few politicians who has actually pick up a gun to fight terrorists, Andrew, what’s your view on this?

ANDREW HASTIE: I've got a lot of respect for Mike Burgess and he's a pretty straight shooter, but on this question, I disagree. I think that if you sign up or support the Hamas charter—directly or indirectly—I don't see how you can't be supporting violent, radical behaviour – the sort that we saw on October 7 last year. It's in the Hamas charter—they are committed to the destruction of the Jewish people and the State of Israel. That's why they use the words 'from the river to the sea'. These people don't negotiate. So, if we have people coming to Australia who support Hamas, all we're doing is inviting more radicalism into Australia which will damage our social cohesion and potentially lead to other consequences.

PETA CREDLIN: I made the point earlier in the show, you know, Muslim countries in the region, neighbours of the Gaza area – Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia – they refuse to take in anyone from Gaza. Why is this Australia’s problem to fix from this great distance away? And the fact that these countries don’t want anyone from Gaza given the predominance of Hamas, that says something, doesn’t it?

ANDREW HASTIE: Yes, it does. Hamas is a radical organisation committed to the destruction of Israel. So people who sign up to that or support that, we have big problems with. If other Muslim countries have problems with that, then we should be looking very closely at this. I think anyone who supports Hamas should not be allowed into Australia – it's as simple as that. It's a pretty straight line which is why I support what Senator James Paterson said today.

PETA CREDLIN: We like you for your clarity, Andrew Hastie. Thanks for your time.

[ENDS]