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

TRANSCRIPT 
INTERVIEW WITH PATRICIA KARVELAS, AFTERNOON BRIEFING  

Monday 4 May 2026 

Topics: Prime Minister Takaichi’s visit to Australia; Budget; Farrer byelection; Kumanjayi Little Baby.  

E&OE…………………………………… 
 
PATRICIA KARVELAS: For the Opposition's view, I want to bring in shadow spokesperson for industry and sovereign capability, Andrew Hastie. Welcome to the program. 
 
ANDREW HASTIE: Good afternoon, PK. 
 
PATRICIA KARVELAS: Anthony Albanese has signed what is really a series of joint declarations on energy, fuel, critical minerals, defence, cyber security, all with the Japanese Prime Minister during her visit to Australia. Should we be getting much closer to Japan? Is this in our interest in countering China? 
 
ANDREW HASTIE: I think it's a great deepening of our relationship with Japan. We have many common interests – particularly now with the pressure caused by the war in Iran – we have a strong economic relationship and so I think it's a good move. We obviously support it. We're not going to criticise our government for building partnerships with important Asian nations in the region. Of course, there's the issue of China and Japan's relationship to it, but I think it's really important that Australia is at the table of nations, that we do have a voice, and we maintain as many relationships with countries like Japan as we can. 
 
PATRICIA KARVELAS: But Japan also is developing a more hawkish position on China, and there is more antagonism between the two. Is it in our interest too, to deepen this relationship on a military defence level with Japan given that geopolitical dimension here? 
 
ANDREW HASTIE: It's an important relationship. We're obviously buying frigates – the Mogami frigates – off Japan as well. We export a lot of our gas to Japan. It's a strong relationship. Yes, the next decade is going to be a very challenging one – there's no question whatsoever – with the rise of China. China is flexing its muscles. Of course, Japan is close to China, there's long historical tensions between China and Japan. But Australia has a role in the Indo-Pacific region, and I think we need to be a regional power that brings peace, and one of the ways we can do that is building and deepening relationships with a whole range of countries, including Japan. 
 
PATRICIA KARVELAS: I want to talk about the upcoming budget, the government is widely expected to slash the capital gains tax discount and to reduce negative gearing for investors. Is this the kind of change that we need at this moment, intergenerationally, that young people need to enable a different kind of structure? 
 
ANDREW HASTIE: I think the objective that we're all moving towards is realising the Australian dream for Australians under 40, and that is to be able to buy their own home, have a stake in the country, form deep roots into their local community, and form families. That's the dream, and there's a number of ways that we can get there, and that's what the debate is about. But we'll have our own discussions once Labor announces their Budget next week, and we'll have a good debate – obviously internally – and we'll come to a position. But I think there's a number of areas that we need to be looking at. Supply of houses is one area that we need to really work on – bringing on more housing completions. I think immigration is an area that we need to work on as well. And of course, just getting our productivity up as a nation is critical. All these things are important factors, so we'll wait and see, Patricia. 
 
PATRICIA KARVELAS: Of course, you have to look at the proposals – that makes sense, it's a sensible thing – but if you think they're proportionate and make the system fairer, do you think you should keep an open mind on changing property taxes like this? 
 
ANDREW HASTIE: Well, Angus Taylor, our Opposition Leader, has said we're not going to put any more new taxes on housing, and so whatever we come to will be a position that we formed under his leadership as a shadow cabinet. I don't want to get ahead of that process, but certainly we'll be innovating as well, and we'll have some ideas for how we think we can build more homes, get the cost of housing down for young Australians, and get more Australians into homes early so that they can start forming families and feel like they have a stake in this great country of ours. 
 
PATRICIA KARVELAS: Just to get your view, is it your view that some of these – regardless if you want to call it bigger, whatever we want to call them – but some of these taxation arrangements have skewed the system too much to older Australians? 
 
ANDREW HASTIE: Maybe. But I mean, if we want to talk about taxation, let's start with income tax – Australians are now paying about $2,000 a year extra because of bracket creep, because of the persistent inflation that we've seen under this Labor government. We're at 4.6 per cent – higher than most developed countries around the world – and because of that, people are paying more in tax through bracket creep. These are the sorts of things that we need to talk about – income tax, and obviously the incentives around housing. But if we're going to talk about tax, we've got to do it not just fiddling at the edges, but we've got to look at it root and branch, and that's something that we'll do as a Coalition team. 
 
PATRICIA KARVELAS: Jim Chalmers today justified breaking election promises by saying, "you build trust by making the right decision." On that principle – it's obviously good, easy politics to talk about broken promises – but on the principle of making the right decision, is he right that you have to actually look at the settings, not just be so formulaic in what you said last? 
 
ANDREW HASTIE: Politicians have always responded to events – that's just part of political life. But Labor went to the last election not having made any of these policy commitments, and now they're changing. Can we trust them? And I think the answer is no. What other tricks do they have up their sleeve that they're going to pull on the Australian people? So Jim Chalmers can talk about it all he wants but, in the end, if they've committed not to changing things and now they are, that's a broken promise, and that goes to trust. Can we trust this Labor government? That's the question that people will be asking. 
 
PATRICIA KARVELAS: Just a couple of other questions on other issues. If the Liberals lose Farrer this weekend – which is been widely tipped- who will be responsible and how big a deal will that be? 
 
ANDREW HASTIE: We've always had very low expectations of the outcome at Farrer, it's a very difficult by election – a very popular member in Sussan Ley for 25 years. Obviously, there's a real struggle on the centre right at the moment, and it's a difficult election – a very difficult election – so we're managing expectations. It won't be anyone's fault, I think it'll just be another data point for us to focus the team on building out our policy platform, winning back the Australian people and winning government in two years’ time. 
 
PATRICIA KARVELAS: Why low expectations? I'm just going to be really brutally honest with you here – in a seat like this, the Coalition has held it for such a long time, how can you have low expectations in what should be the safest territory? 
 
ANDREW HASTIE: Well, by-elections are pretty difficult. The Albanese government isn't even showing up for this, I think that's for obvious reasons – they don't want to test their numbers, but we are. We're going to obviously contest this seat, but there's no two ways about it – One Nation has been ascendant in the polls, our numbers have been tracking down. We're in a bit of a difficult time politically at the moment and so I think it's reasonable to say that we have low expectations. It won't be anyone's fault, but part of a rebuild – restoration follows ruin, and at the moment, we're trying to restore our fortunes, and that takes time. It's not something that happens overnight. 
 
PATRICIA KARVELAS: One Nation – do you need to be talking more negatively about One Nation? I mean, Angus Taylor has been asked, and he's been very careful not to criticise Pauline Hanson. Is it the right strategy? 
 
ANDREW HASTIE: I don't see One Nation as friends at all. When you're competing in the political square, you've just got to be better than your opponents and I think that the best thing that we can do is build a platform that includes all Australians. That delivers a high standard of living for Australians, that preserves our way of life which is the two things that Angus Taylor talks about often – preserving our way of life, restoring our standard of living and delivering policy to achieve that. So One Nation – people can talk about them all they want – we're focused on doing our jobs and being the best Coalition that we can be. 
 
PATRICIA KARVELAS: Just finally on the very, very sad story, which we've been covering for many days now, on Alice Springs and the death of Kumanjayi Little Baby. Is it politicising the tragedy to try and call for a Royal Commission into child sexual abuse? Should there be a pause before those sorts of discussions happen? 
 
ANDREW HASTIE: I don't think so, Patricia. This is a terrible, terrible case, it's a heartbreaking case, and we don't want to see it happen again. This has been something we've been talking about for years now. We want to protect children in this country, particularly vulnerable children in our indigenous community, so I don't think it's wrong to call for that at all. What we do not want to see is more of this happening – this evil kind of thing – and that's why we've taken that position. 

PATRICIA KARVELAS: Thank you so much for joining us.  

ANDREW HASTIE: Thanks, PK. 

[ENDS]