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

TRANSCRIPT
INTERVIEW WITH LUKE GRANT, 2GB

Thursday 8 October 2026

Topics: Death of an ADF soldier; the Coalition’s immigration policy; credit card surcharges.

E&OE……………………………………

LUKE GRANT: Each fortnight, Mark speaks with the Member for Canning, Andrew Hastie. The Shadow Minister for Industry and Sovereign Capability is on the line. How are you, Andrew?

ANDREW HASTIE: I'm good, thanks, Luke. How are you?

LUKE GRANT: Very well. Nice to talk to you again. Now, lots of issues to chat about, but something that I know is close to you, and it's certainly close to all of us that respect people like you that don the uniform. We had the death of an Australian soldier in training; this is in the Northern Territory. Beloved father, 28-year-old Corporal Brendan Hannam, lost his life in a Defence training exercise.  I'm sure, Andrew, that any one of those people that wear the uniform, whoever they are, it must just be a nasty reminder to you of just how dangerous the work you do is.

ANDREW HASTIE: It is, and our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of Corporal Brendan Hannam, but particularly his partner and his two little ones. I know they're the ones who will really be suffering at the moment. It's really tough, and it's a reminder that our men and women who serve in the ADF put their lives on the line for us, whether it's in training or in operations but particularly in training because in order to be ready for the next conflict, we've always got to push the envelope in training. I know the Mount Bundey training area very well. I was posted to Darwin for three years, did a lot of time up there, and it breaks my heart. But we honour him and those who wear the uniform because we know they're standing up for us, serving us and defending us.

LUKE GRANT: Yeah, great words. And today happens to be Legacy Giving Day. It's a cause that we're backing here at this radio station. Legacy is so important, isn't it, to people that come back maybe not feeling the same, maybe they don't even come back. But their families – they're always on duty it seems to me.

ANDREW HASTIE: They are. Families say goodbye to their loved ones who head on training or overseas, and it's tough. I've got a friend here in Perth whose husband has just gone off to Kapooka to do basic training, and it's the first time in their lives that they've been apart for an extended period of time, and it's hard. So, it's great that Legacy backs our families, and I'm proud to stand with Legacy and offer my support as well, as should every other Australian who's made a contribution.

LUKE GRANT: Good on you, and you can donate today by going to 2GBLegacy.org.au. Remember, your donations are doubled. Let's get to the policy matters of the week. Immigration. Now, you over the journey have had a bit to say about this, and good on you. But we've got a policy out this week. It seems to me that the time has been spent to get the detail right and some of the numbers will be confronting. Already, we've seen the likely suspect say, "Oh no, this is terrible for skills, etc.". Where did you land on this? I know it's Coalition policy but tell me your thoughts.

ANDREW HASTIE: We've done a lot of work over the last three to six months getting this right. This is one of the biggest cuts to immigration in Australia's history. We're taking 650,000 temporary visa holders out of our country over the next four years. The net overseas migration figure will be 100,000, 100,000, 130,000, 160,000. At the moment, it's 300,000 under Labor. It was a peak of 550,000 after the pandemic, and people are seeing that every day. They're seeing the lack of housing, the pressure on our essential services like our hospitals and our doctors, and then of course the pressure on our infrastructure. So, we've gone through, we've worked very closely with the Parliamentary Budgetary Office. This is Budget neutral. We're hearing people attack it on economic grounds, but they're just talking their own book. We're acting in the interest of the Australian people because they're the ones ultimately, we serve.

LUKE GRANT: Yeah, 100 per cent. I was actually talking about this with Jonno Duniam the other day, and I said to him – and I'll say to you – it seems to me that we think putting a pause on rapid population growth makes a lot of sense because there's such a infrastructure backlog, and it just makes sense to do something like a pause. But a pause is zero. One hundred thousand net overseas migration is probably the pause that allows you to make sure that the skills that are needed to be filled can be filled. So, it's not zero – you probably can't have zero – but it's kind of I don't know if it's a number in the middle. What do you make of that? Do you agree with that?

ANDREW HASTIE: Well, that's right. And particularly if you live in the outer metropolitan or regional Australia, we do have people from overseas who are working in aged care and nursing and doing other important jobs – and of course on our orchards and with our primary producers. So, we're very conscious that there are consequences here. We can't be fast and loose. We've actually got to do the work – we have done the work. That's why this is about rebalancing immigration, it's about getting the numbers down, also increasing the standards. We want more skilled migrants, but we just want them at a higher standard. And of course, we want our universities working for Australians. They're there to educate future Australians. Yes, we have foreign students, but the number of foreign students over the last decade has increased something like 60 per cent whereas our numbers – Australian students – have only gone up about four or five per cent. So, you can see that our universities have been running as basically visa mills. That's where we're going to take a lot of the temporary visa holders out through abolishing the Temporary Graduate Visas, especially.

LUKE GRANT: And the overstays, Andrew. How do you get that number down? Because people on bridging visas and the like, they just seem to have forever to appeal, and they're here for such a long time – I mean, years and years and years. How do you deal with that? That's not going to be easy.

ANDREW HASTIE: Well, we're going to take back control of our migration program by requiring secondary and subsequent temporary visa applications to be made offshore. We're going to cut Labor's unsustainable humanitarian program by half down to 10,000 people. Those who want to apply for onshore protection visa have to do it within 30 days – not at the end of your visa, but within 30 days. And then we're going to remove merits review for adverse character decisions, temporary visas, and offshore applicants. So, we're going to tighten up the system. People will push back on this, but in the end, who are we elected by? The Australian people. And they are sending very clear signals that immigration numbers are too high, the standards are too low. Under Angus Taylor, we're acting.

LUKE GRANT: Let's get to the credit card surcharge. Boy, the government screwed this up. There are two elements to it. The first is small business cop the surcharge as a cost now because what you see is what you pay. And that's the way it will be except if you're the Australian Tax Office, then all of a sudden, if you're managing in a tough environment – and business is exactly in that tough environment, your cash flow, and you need the plastic – sorry, the ATO can't help you. I can't tell you, mate, how many listeners have said to me, "Coffee is now $5.20, it used to be five bucks, and I pay cash", so they're now paying the credit card surcharge. I mean, this was bloody obvious, wasn't it?

ANDREW HASTIE: Very obvious. I think it's just evidence that the Albanese government, particularly Jim Chalmers, just doesn't get the economy. They don't understand it. They don't understand how their decisions cascade and affect other people as well – you mentioned those who use cash to buy coffee. There's a whole bunch of ways this is going to impact people who use credit cards to pay their bills. So, once again, it's the Australian people getting hammered by the Albanese government. The Labor government is not for the Australian people, and I think that's becoming clearer and clearer as each day goes by.

LUKE GRANT: And there's a pattern, isn't there? I mean, we had the budget in May, and how many times has the Treasurer had to modify what he announced there? I mean, normally you get a Budget; it's then put into the Parliament, and you deal with it. But they're having to undo so many policies they submit to the people. I'm with you, I just think the bloke – and I'm talking to you about the Treasurer – just doesn't understand it.

ANDREW HASTIE: They're good at backflips. They backflipped on the widow's tax, but the one backflip we're really hoping they'll do is on energy, and they'll give up this Net Zero stuff, which is really just green grift. A lot of grift going on. A lot of people using taxpayers' money to feather their own pockets, whether it's the subsidies for all these renewables – wind and solar that's imported from China. And then these massive love-ins up in the Pacific, as Chris Bowen's done with the pre-COP flop where only two leaders from outside the Pacific rocks up. I mean, you can't make this stuff up. It's like off the show utopia, isn't it?

LUKE GRANT: Yeah, and you know what, mate? He goes over there and falls asleep. Did you see the video of that? He's sitting there and he's nodding off.

ANDREW HASTIE: He's not even in a suit. He's in some Hawaiian shirt. I mean, no excuse for nodding off.

LUKE GRANT: Alright. Thanks so much for your time, mate. We'll speak to you in a couple of weeks. Thank you.

ANDREW HASTIE: No worries, Luke. Cheers, mate.

[ENDS]