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 GARY ADSHEAD, ABC RADIO PERTH DRIVE

TUESDAY 22 APRIL 2025

Topics: Federal election campaign, combat roles in the ADF, Labor’s refusal to provide a briefing on Russia-Indonesia, Coalition’s plan for defence.

GARY ADSHEAD: Andrew Hastie is, of course, he's the Federal Member for Canning and the Shadow Minister for Defence. I've found him, he's here. Andrew, thanks very much for joining us.

ANDREW HASTIE: Good to be with you, Gary, how are you?

GARY ADSHEAD: I'm good. Just quickly, have you been avoiding media appearances or campaigning publicly?

ANDREW HASTIE: Of course not. Most of the media are pretty lazy and won't actually venture down to Mandurah. So I'm always here, but look, I enjoyed the earned media share today – appreciate that from the journalist who wrote that story. But every three years, we apply for our jobs, and I'm working very hard for my constituents, and I'm doing a lot of work across the country. In fact, I've visited 24 seats across the country since late January, every state and territory less Tasmania. So you know, these reports are false. And in those seats, I did a lot of defence forums talking to hundreds of people, and just because the media weren't there at the time, it doesn't mean it didn't happen.

GARY ADSHEAD: Alright. So from your point of view, there's no suggestion that you know you've been asked to sort of keep a low profile, or you've decided to, because you're concerned about being attached to the Liberal brand at the moment?

ANDREW HASTIE: Of course not. No. I mean, you mentioned the article – the journalist who wrote the article used to work for Patrick Gorman so you can join the dots there. It's pretty clear the axe that is being ground there. And, again, I've got a job to do. I'm focused on cost of living, my constituents. I've doorknocked almost two thousand homes with my team over the last few weeks. So again, I stand by my record, and the voters will have their say on May 3.

GARY ADSHEAD: I assume, and you can tell me whether I'm right or wrong, that this week there would be some announcement from the Coalition in and around defence, promises, pledges, spending.

ANDREW HASTIE: Yes, there will be a defence announcement very shortly.

GARY ADSHEAD: All right, would you be at that?

ANDREW HASTIE: Yes, I will be.

GARY ADSHEAD: And would you be speaking at that?

ANDREW HASTIE: Of course, I will be.

GARY ADSHEAD: All right, and you'd be alongside Peter Dutton?

ANDREW HASTIE: Happy to be alongside Peter.

GARY ADSHEAD: Okay, all right. Another observation that people have made is that some of the signage that you have in your area, the corflutes, the posters, whatever, don't necessarily have the big 'L' Liberal on it.

ANDREW HASTIE: Well, there's a combination of signage. Some has, some doesn't. But you know, if you look across the country, as I have done driving from Sydney to Canberra through a number of seats, a lot of the signage, both from Labor and Liberal, is a little bit different these days. Patrick Gorman has stuff that he sends out which is missing the Labor logo. So again, this is all inside baseball. This is stuff that you know, people out in the mortgage belt don't even care about. I door knocked a woman in Karnup on Saturday. She had three little girls, she's a midwife with a post graduate qualification, she's on maternity leave, her husband is ex-Army, and she said they don't believe they'll ever be able to afford a home of their own. They're the sort of people I'm worried about, not about signage. And this shows you the state of the modern Labor Party - they've forgotten working Australians in the outer metro and regional parts of this country.

GARY ADSHEAD: And how are you feeling about May 3? Because, you know, there's no secret that some of the more recent polling is showing that the Coalition is not going perhaps as well as it would like to. How are you feeling, and what's your sense down there?

ANDREW HASTIE: I never take anyone for granted. This is a contest. Psychological combat every single day, that's what Labor's bringing through the media, through other means. And I'm working hard because I want to represent my community. I've built a life here. I bought a house here 10 years ago with my wife. Our three children go to school here. I love our community; I love its character and it's a privilege to represent them. I've got to work hard, and that's what I'm doing. And on 3 May, people will decide. Polls will tell you something which is merely a snapshot in time. I'm actually really focused on just doing the right thing every day by my constituents.

GARY ADSHEAD: I'd like to get your comment on this, because I heard last night from a source that some of the internal polling for the Liberals was of great concern, and I'll probably want to get your response to this so that I can put on the public record in case they turn out to be correct, Andrew, so please allow me. Menzies, Moore here in Western Australia, Casey, Stuart in South Australia, Deakin, which is Michael Sukkar's seat, that they will go – that the Liberals will not hang on to those at the federal election.

ANDREW HASTIE: I haven't seen that polling, and I don't know who your source is. But again, I'm the second most marginal seat in Shadow Cabinet at 1.2 per cent so I don't take anything for granted and to serve in Parliament is an absolute privilege. And anyone who thinks their seat is safe is mistaken and foolhardy. So we keep working. Polls are polls, but I've got a job to do, and the people will decide on 3 May.

GARY ADSHEAD: Can I ask you, because once again, I was speaking to Richard Marles before four o'clock, and the question mark over women in combat came up. He doubled down in relation to saying that if your position remains the same as it did in 2018 that that would not necessarily make you a fit person to be the Defence Minister should that happen. This is the 2018 comment, to be fair to you, that you made. And this is, of course, to a Sky News interview back in 2018.

*EXCERPT PLAYS*

GARY ADSHEAD: All right, do you regret that? Does that cause you any problem or do you stand by it?

ANDREW HASTIE: Gary, I don't regret it, and here's why. I've been in this role now for almost five years – 18 months I was the Assistant Minister for Defence in the previous government, I’ve been the Shadow Minister for Defence for three years, and our position has always been that combat roles are open to all Australians who meet the standard. There has never been an indication that I would change that personnel policy. There's no record of me ever doing that, and our Coalition position is very clear: we have combat roles open to everyone in the Australian community, we set high standards, and we expect them to meet that. Now to the point of clarity, I made this point to the CDF and SecDef last week in my caretaker Defence brief: there will be no change to policy. So this is a shameful scare campaign from Richard Marles, using Defence for political purposes. And he knows better than anyone else that I have a strong record of working with women in my 12 years, eight months in the Defence Force. I worked with women from day one at the Australian Defence Force Academy through to Duntroon, up to 2 Cav and then SAS, where I did the first integrated close quarter battle course at Swanbourne with females in late 2011. I also was an instructor on the first integrated SAS selection course. I had women teach me surveillance and counter surveillance. So if Richard wants to play political games, he's got another thing coming. And this is, frankly, why a lot of veterans despise people like Richard Marles, because they're quick to politicise personal experience of veterans for their own gain and that's what he's doing.

GARY ADSHEAD: Okay. Would you be prepared to elaborate, though, when you talk about not in the DNA, or in the DNA of men and not women, what does that mean to people like me who, you know, obviously haven't been in services?

ANDREW HASTIE: Gary, when I got asked that question, I was thinking about some of the training that I did up at Bindoon. In the SAS patrol course, we train for a break contact, which is where you put down fire and you basically break contact with the enemy. It's very choreographed, there's live rounds firing, and it's quite dangerous. You need fine motor skills. You're carrying a pack and webbing. We also simulate a man down drill during a break contact, and I still remember picking up an 85-kilo mate and dragging him, and it was one of the most intensive aerobic, anaerobic activities I did in the Defence Force. Now I did that in training, but I worked with men who in Afghanistan actually had to do that – had to drag one of their fallen mates in combat under fire. And so there's just this bond between blokes that is hard to explain. And you know, people like Richard Marles who deal in ideology and abstractions, won't ever get it and I don't pretend to have to explain that to him. I don't really care what he thinks. But in the end, what matters is that the Coalition policy is that combat roles are open to all women and so if he wants to continue politicising this, do his worst. I don't really care.

GARY ADSHEAD: Can I ask you; do you have a sense that there should have been some form of briefing for you and other shadow spokespeople in relation to the situation around Russia and Indonesia?

ANDREW HASTIE: Absolutely, what is the government hiding? It's a very simple question to the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, Penny Wong, the Foreign Affairs Minister. This is a serious issue. If Russia has apparent plans for a military base or to expand into the Indo- Pac it does compromise our security, and we have a right to have a briefing. We should have had a briefing so what are they hiding? Why are they running away from the scrutiny? The same thing happened when the Chinese flotilla live fired in the Tasman Sea, and now they're running scared over Russia. So we, in good faith and on a bipartisan basis, seek a briefing on this and we're still waiting. It's almost a week since we asked for this briefing, and they're hiding because they don't want to be held accountable, because it's possible that this happened on their watch, and they didn't even know about.

GARY ADSHEAD: I'm talking to Andrew Hastie, the shadow defence spokesperson for the coalition right now. I mean, Murray Watt, another minister in the government, said that well, if you want a briefing on Russia, Indonesia, you might as well have asked for a briefing on the existence of the Loch Ness Monster, because there's nothing sort of definite about it. What do you say to that?

ANDREW HASTIE: Well, that's just immature. I mean, these are the sorts of people who you know thrive in student politics, but in the world of geopolitics, they get eaten alive. What's wrong with having a secure briefing on this subject? Now, if it's a secure briefing, there are things that we won't be able to mention in the public sphere. But wouldn't you want, in the national interest, to make sure that the loyal opposition – because that's what we are, loyal to the Australian people – wouldn't you want them briefed in as well, so that we can all make good public policy decisions in the national interest? But instead, no, they won't even give us a secure briefing.

GARY ADSHEAD: Now, before I let you go, I'll give it my best shot. You said that very shortly, there would be the announcement in relation to defence policies and promises going into this election, Andrew Hastie. Will that include more spending, percentage of GDP spending, than the current federal government on Defence? Would you go to say three per cent as has been requested by the US?

ANDREW HASTIE: I can see your lure in the water, Gary, and I'm not going to bite. It will be revealed in due course.

GARY ADSHEAD: Well, can I ask you then whether or not though you would outlay policies around defence that wouldn't take us off to 30, 40 years into the future, but might be looking more at the here and now?

ANDREW HASTIE: We've always said that under Labor, they talk a big game. They talk about the most dangerous strategic circumstances since the end of the Second World War, and they're not doing enough about it. We take our defence seriously, we take our country seriously, and we will always act in the best interests of the Australian people, and that means securing them, and that's what we'll do. Now you'll just have to wait a little bit longer, but it's not far away.

GARY ADSHEAD: All right, we'll wait and see. I'm betting tomorrow. I do appreciate you joining us. Andrew Hastie.

ANDREW HASTIE: Thanks, Gary.

[ENDS]