THE HON ANDREW HASTIE MP

SHADOW MINISTER FOR INDUSTRY AND SOVEREIGN CAPABILITY
FEDERAL MEMBER FOR CANNING

TRANSCRIPT

INTERVIEW WITH PATRICIA KARVELAS, AFTERNOON BRIEFING

Monday 18 May 2026

Topics: Labor’s tax changes; Coalition’s plan for a better Australia; Liberal Party. 

E&OE……………………………………

PATRICIA KARVELAS: Andrew Hastie, welcome to the program.

ANDREW HASTIE: Good afternoon, PK.

PATRICIA KARVELAS: You had an open mind on changes to property taxes before, of course, they were announced in the Budget. What do you feel now?

ANDREW HASTIE: Well, an open mind is for closing on something, and I think what the Labor government has revealed is that their Budget this year is a war on aspiration, and that's why we oppose it. We want young Australians to have hope, we want them to realise the Australian dream of home ownership, and we also want to reward entrepreneurs, initiative, and hard work. That's why we're drawing such a sharp contrast with our Budget in Reply, which Angus Taylor gave last week.

PATRICIA KARVELAS: Do you think people might get used to it? It might start shifting the dial on housing. Is repealing it a good idea to promise at this part of the cycle that you would repeal these changes?

ANDREW HASTIE: The really interesting thing about Jim Chalmers' speech last week to the Parliament was that he mentioned immigration not once = he didn't talk about the numbers. Interestingly, when you look at the population growth over the last four years, we've had about 1.8 million people added to our population – 1.4 of those have come from overseas – and during that period of time, we've only built about 500,000 homes. So we've got a demand problem, and we've got a supply problem. That's why we're going to peg the net overseas migration figure every year to housing completions until we can get the Australian dream of home ownership alive again. It's dead under Labor; we want to bring it back to life. That's why we think the first step is cutting migration levels, but also committing $5 billion to a Housing Infrastructure Fund, which will lead to the building of 400,000 homes, will help local governments do the planning around roads, sewage and other utilities, and really supercharge the construction industry, which is what we need to do. Finally, Patricia, just on housing – the National Construction Code brought in in 1988, it was about 200 pages then – it's now blown out to 2,300 pages. For your viewers, the average print edition of the Bible is about 1,200 pages. This thing is massive. We want to cut it right back down and make it easier to build homes in this country.

PATRICIA KARVELAS: Over the weekend, there's already evidence that investors were not turning up to auctions, because, of course, they can't negatively gear anymore. Isn't that a good thing?

ANDREW HASTIE: There's a whole number of reasons why people aren't turning up to auctions across this country. For one, credit is much more expensive now than it was last decade. It's a lot harder to get a housing deposit together, and it's a lot riskier now with rate increases occurring under the Labor government. Speaking to people over the weekend, and I spoke to trades people, retirees, a doctor, an architect – people from across the spectrum – a lot of people haven't even caught up on the Budget yet. They're still just trying to keep themselves afloat, get enough money together to look after their families or their retirement, and so I think this will take some time before people realise what a hit on aspiration this government is doing through their Budget.

PATRICIA KARVELAS: The other part of the announcements that your side of politics announced is the indexation of tax, but there's already been a dispute about exactly how much it would cost. If you're announcing a big policy like that, don't you need to be able to articulate exactly how much it would cost and where the money would come from?

ANDREW HASTIE: An important thing here is that $22.5 billion of taxpayers' money will return to Australian taxpayers. It's their money, they've earned it, they should be able to keep it and spend it as they see fit. That's why we're proposing to index the different tax brackets over time – 2028-29 we will index the bottom two thresholds, and then from 2031-32 we'll index the top thresholds – and people will have more money returned back to them. Because one of the big things we've seen under this high inflation, big spending Labor government is that they're taking people's money through bracket creep. If you earn more, you shouldn't have to pay more tax, you should be able to be aspirational, ambitious, and do well, and we don't want to see governments taxing Australians over time as inflation creeps up.

PATRICIA KARVELAS: I want to move to some other elements of the announcements from the Opposition Leader's speech. Federal Liberal Senator Andrew McLachlan told me for ABC Online that he's concerned about the new plan on migration. He said it would effectively create two types of community members by pushing taxpaying migrants off welfare benefits. These people are sometimes here for many years, and they're frightened in some cases of giving up their citizenship, for instance, in China, because they may lose their property and other entitlements. Why not let them get benefits after they've paid tax in our country for years?

ANDREW HASTIE: Well, the first thing is Patricia, we are proposing to grandfather this matter, so everyone who is currently a permanent resident and using our social services or welfare system won't be affected. This is a measure designed to encourage people to take Australian citizenship. I think it's only fair that if you come to this country, that you should aspire to be a citizen, regardless of what your country that you come from says about your citizenship back there. If you come to this country and you want to make a contribution, that's great, we'd like you to be an Australian citizen. And if you look after us, we'll look after you – that's at the heart of this – it's a bit of reciprocity here. I think it will also save a lot of money. If you talk to Australians out there, they're already doing it tough. We need to get our budget under control, and this is another way to get our budget under control, by making sure that people who come to this country take up citizenship, and we're not just handing out welfare to people who don't have a long-term commitment to Australia.

PATRICIA KARVELAS: They do have a long-term commitment, though. They're permanent residents, they're here for good, and they're paying tax.

ANDREW HASTIE: Sure. So, why not take citizenship?

PATRICIA KARVELAS: Well, as I said, I explained – if you're Chinese, for instance, you're going to have to give up your Chinese citizenship. Now, that might sound fine on paper, but if that has implications for your ability to interact with your family or your property there, I mean, that would worry anyone, wouldn't it?

ANDREW HASTIE: Perhaps, but in the end, this is Australia. Citizenship is important – we want to encourage people to become citizens. It won't affect people who already have existing arrangements, it won't affect the reciprocal arrangements we have with other countries – and there are quite a few – but we are making a strong principle here, and that is: if you come to this country, we want you to become an Australian citizen, and in order to do that, you unlock the full benefits of citizenship, which includes welfare support.

PATRICIA KARVELAS: Do you think it could cause some damage in some of these diaspora communities that you've been trying to build support in?

ANDREW HASTIE: Well, if it's weaponised, but I think a lot of our migrant communities are so glad to be here. I do citizenship ceremonies all the time; people are so excited to become fully fledged Australian citizens. I think there's a strong constituency out there that recognises that we all have the responsibility of mutual obligation, and that is to not just take but also to put into the country, and I think the best way to express that is through citizenship. As for Senator McLachlan, Andrew is an outspoken Senator. He and Alex Antic, another South Australian Senator, are very alike in this regard. They have strong convictions – they speak them, they vote them – and that's their entitlement as backbench team members of the Coalition.

PATRICIA KARVELAS: Yes, on very different sides of that ledger can I say with your party. But you know, I get along with all the Andrews that I speak to. I say yes to Andrews! Look, I want to talk to you about a couple of other things. You've lost some pretty high-profile Liberals to One Nation – Holly Hughes, Teena McQueen – do you fear a bigger exodus, and how do you reflect on them leaving?

ANDREW HASTIE: Teena McQueen and Holly Hughes, I think, made it pretty clear some time ago that they were drifting away from the party, so I wasn't surprised when I read that yesterday in the paper. But long term, yes, we need to demonstrate that we have a plan for the Australian people, that we're focused on putting their interests first, and I think Angus Taylor's Budget in Reply last week was the first step. We're different to One Nation, and that is, we're not just a vibe, we actually have a plan. There's some really thought out policy in Angus Taylor's Budget in Reply, and that's what we're going to be talking about. It will take some time to win people back, but also to build a new constituency, because, of course, we can't just win with 30 per cent of people, we've actually got to get up to 50 per cent plus one, and that's the objective.

PATRICIA KARVELAS: You say you can't just win on a vibe, and you can't just be a vibe – I get that. One Nation has targeted you directly. Why do you think you're a target?

ANDREW HASTIE: Good question. I don't mind getting targeted. I like a fight, and certainly I have strong convictions – I'm going to fight for those – and I'm not going to get pushed around or bow at the knee or whatever else people are expecting me to do. I'm a proud member of the Coalition, I want to form the next government under Angus Taylor, and that means we've got to improve our primary vote position before all else. That's why his plan is a good one. We've got to get cheaper energy in this country, we've got to get more houses, we've got to cut immigration, and we want to give more Australians back their money through our Tax Back Guarantee.

PATRICIA KARVELAS: They've weaponised your testimony on Ben Roberts-Smith, on your relationship I understand you're building with Malcolm Turnbull. Are these things that they're trying to weaponise against you because they see you as a future leadership aspirant?

ANDREW HASTIE: There's nothing wrong with getting along well with people, and I don't have any problem with Malcolm Turnbull. I don't think it's wise to make enemies; I'd rather make friends, first thing. With regards to Ben Roberts-Smith, and what's happened in the past, I was subpoenaed before the Federal Court, and I gave evidence under oath. What do they expect me to do? Be in contempt of court? Lie? No, of course not. I think people are wanting to make these things into culture wars – I'm not interested in culture wars, I'm interested in doing the best for the Australian people, building a stronger, more competitive, more prosperous Australia, and that'll continue to be my primary objective in politics.

PATRICIA KARVELAS: Andrew Hastie, it's always good to speak to you. Thank you.

ANDREW HASTIE: Thanks, PK.

[ENDS]