THE HON ANDREW HASTIE MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR HOME AFFAIRS
FEDERAL MEMBER FOR CANNING

TRANSCRIPT

INTERVIEW WITH MARK LEVY, 2GB

Wednesday 6 August 2025

Topics: Sydney Harbour Bridge protests, Gaza conflict, Tony Burke’s visa selection process, announcement on general purpose frigate build.

E&OE……………………………………

MARK LEVY: I thought we'd catch up with the Shadow Minister for Home Affairs, Andrew Hastie. He's on the line from over in the West. Andrew, good morning to you.

SHADOW MINISTER FOR HOME AFFAIRS THE HON ANDREW HASTIE MP: Good morning to you, Mark. Good to chat to you.

MARK LEVY: You too, mate. Lovely to catch up as always. A fair few things to raise with you this morning. I wanted to start off with these rising tensions, though, it's at the forefront of our minds in Sydney, for obvious reasons, with what happened on the bridge on Sunday. This all relates to the war in Gaza that's got nothing to do with Australia. I said earlier, the Prime Minister is making all the wrong friends at the moment when you consider he's been to China, he's spoken to the Palestinian leader when surely he should be speaking to the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu and the US President Donald Trump. Do you agree?

ANDREW HASTIE: Yeah. Look, I'm worried about the Prime Minister rushing into recognising Palestinian statehood for domestic reasons. I grew up in Sydney, in Ashfield. I've got a heart for Sydney, I love the place, and to see Al Qaeda, ISIS flags, PLO flags on our Harbour Bridge on the weekend, it made my heart sink. I mean, this is a great country. It's a lovely country. We have such wonderful values, and I hate to see these ancient hatreds imported to our country and spill out onto our streets. We're all concerned about what's happening in the Middle East, no question, but there are no easy solutions, and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying to you. There's always been conflict in the Middle East. It's been going for thousands of years, and this latest iteration is getting to a point where people obviously want a solution, but it's going to take compromise. It's going to take a lot of hard work, and I can't see a solution where we recognise a Hamas-led Palestinian state. I mean, they're committed to the destruction of Israel. I don't know what the Prime Minister's trying to achieve here, but I suspect it's driven by political concerns. 

MARK LEVY: Do you think we're falling for this propaganda – well not we – but those in Canberra are falling for this propaganda that's being sprouted by Hamas?

ANDREW HASTIE: Hamas are very effective at their propaganda. You would have seen the terrible videos of the hostages over the weekend, as would your listeners. But you know, I supported Israel going after Hamas after October 7 – the raping and the murdering of innocent people – I supported Israel going after their hostages as well. But you know, the question I have for Israel is, what is the end game? If you get on Google Earth and you look at Gaza now, you'll see a lot of rubble – that's just on open-source Google Earth. So the question is, what's the end game? Where does this all end? I want to know, I know a lot of people want to know, and we can't have a humanitarian crisis. People have to compromise, people come to the table, but we can't embolden Hamas and terrorists who are committed to the destruction of the State of Israel by recognising them as legitimate political actors in a future two-state solution.

MARK LEVY: And clearly, they want to have the hostages released, including the 24 year old who we've seen in recent days digging his own grave in those tunnels. What did you make of the protest across the Harbour Bridge and the use of one of our globally recognized landmarks as a protest stage for what's happening across the other side of the world?

ANDREW HASTIE: Mark, there were a lot of flags on that bridge that I don't recognise or aren’t reflective of Australian values. We saw the Supreme Leader of Iran, Al Khamenei, his picture held up. I mean, there was a lot of unsavoury, un-Australian people who took part in that march. So it was very hard for a lot of Australians out there who just want to live quiet lives, who don't want to import these hatreds into our country, to see that. And the Home Affairs Minister and the Prime Minister have to show more leadership with this stuff. We all have concerns about what's going on in the Middle East. I've just articulated my own concerns. I support Israel, but to quote a Hebrew proverb, "wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses". We can have a good discussion with Israel and say, guys, come on, what's your end game, what are you trying to achieve here? But at the same time, I don't want people in my country with ISIS flags or Al Qaeda flags. That is the antithesis of democracy. I get triggered because I had to watch these ISIS videos back when I was serving. I was deployed to the Middle East in the fight against ISIS. These people are the most evil people in the world and we had a flag on the bridge over the weekend.

MARK LEVY: I think we're all triggered too, Andrew, especially in Sydney. We had a gunman walk into the Lindt Cafe and force hostages to hold up the ISIS flag, and two people lost their lives in that cafe - innocent people going about their daily lives – and, what, we just don't blink an eyelid because protesters walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, waving these flags? I think you make such a brilliant point. Just on Tony Burke. I mean the comments he's made in the last 24 hours, vowing to protect Australians from the tinderbox of tension stemming from debate about the Middle East, saying he's blocking visas for potentially divisive visitors at an unprecedented rate. What's your response to the Minister's comments?

ANDREW HASTIE: I want to see some consistency from Tony Burke. I want to know what the objective standard is by which he's blocking people's visas. This is also a Minister who brought in a couple of thousand people from Gaza in a very rushed, haphazard manner. He's doing visas on the fly, and I don't have great confidence in his standards. He has to be clear about what the standard is, and then we can actually hold the government to account. I'm also concerned about the insane levels of immigration that's happening under this government. In the last two years, we've had more than a million people added to our country. Net overseas migration is out of control. From the years 2000 and 2019 the average net overseas migration was about 190,000 people per year. We're almost hitting half a million each year. And so this government has as a lot to answer for, I think. I'm worried about social cohesion going forward, I'm worried about the housing demand crisis that Labor is causing. There's a whole range of issues. You see it in traffic – roads are congested – our infrastructure isn't ready to receive that many people. So there's two issues here. Number one, what standard is he cancelling people's visas? And two, when are they going to moderate immigration and make it more sustainable?  They're two questions that Tony Burke has to answer.

MARK LEVY: Couldn't agree more. A couple of other issues, Andrew, and I appreciate you giving up some time on this, this Wednesday morning. The government won't say whether it will raise with China the allegations that have been levelled against a Chinese woman who's accused of foreign interference on Australian soil. Should this not be the first thing that's discussed with China?

ANDREW HASTIE: I think it'll be discussed regardless. It's a fairly significant charge that they're leveling against someone in conducting foreign interference in this country. But this is something we've known for years now, almost a decade. Every year we get the Director General of ASIO – previously, it was Duncan Lewis, it's now Mike Burgess – they've got up and said, espionage and foreign appearance is happening at an unprecedented level in this country. That means that it's exceeding the levels of the Cold War. We have a constant threat. We do have spies in our country, we do have people stealing our government secrets, our commercial secrets, our intellectual property. That was why the Director General gave a speech last week in Adelaide on this very topic, all the economic loss that happens through people spying, it's a big issue. And he named China, he named Iran, he named Russia. This is something that's causing tension in the relationship and the Prime Minister can't avoid it.

MARK LEVY: It's the reason why we need a strong Defence Force. It's the reason why we need a fleet of 11 general purpose frigates that are coming to our shores. Let's finish on some good news and that is we finally got some movement. The government has announced Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has been selected to build this new fleet of 11 general purpose frigates. You're welcoming this news, and it is, t's good news, isn't it?

ANDREW HASTIE: It is good news. We've been waiting a long time, two years now, for the government to make a decision on this. Our service fleet is actually going to get weaker before it gets stronger. Our Anzac-class frigates, we've already had a couple taken out of service, and so we need to get these ships built soon. So the first thing I'd say is, it's a good decision insofar as the geopolitics is concerned - Japan is a close ally. We want good supply chains that are in our region, and Japan building the first three will achieve that, we'll get the ships at speed. But the real question for the Albanese Government is, are they ready to get these eight ships built? Are they taking the decisions to invest in the shipyards in Perth to make sure that we have the young apprentices being identified now, that we're building the workforce, that we've got the secure energy supply that we're going to need – it's going to be very energy intensive to build these ships. But overall, the Mogami will have more missiles, we'll have Tomahawk missiles, greater range. This is a good fighting ship.

MARK LEVY: Certainly is. Andrew, not bad for a young bloke from Ashfield, mate. You're an impressive politician, but more importantly, you're an impressive Australian. Thanks so much for your time as always.

ANDREW HASTIE: Thanks Mark. Always a pleasure.

[ENDS]