THE HON ANDREW HASTIE MP

SHADOW MINISTER FOR INDUSTRY AND SOVEREIGN CAPABILITY
 FEDERAL MEMBER FOR CANNING

TRANSCRIPT

INTERVIEW WITH MARK LEVY, 2GB

Wednesday 20 May 2026

Topics: Budget; capital gains tax; cuts to Collins class submarine LOTE program; Labor’s travel cuts to VC recipient’s family; One Nation.

E&OE……………………………………

MARK LEVY: Andrew, good morning to you.

ANDREW HASTIE: Good morning, Mark.

MARK LEVY: Mate, it's been a pretty good week for the Liberals. I thought Angus Taylor's Budget in Reply speech was strong. My first question to you, mate, are the Liberals back?

ANDREW HASTIE: I think so and most importantly, we've got a strong message to sell. We've got some policies, and we're going in hard on immigration, on housing, on energy. We're out of Net Zero, and we're also putting Australians first, as we made clear with the changes to the welfare system. This is a good, strong Budget in Reply. Angus is leading; things are moving forward. We've got a big job to do, though. We've got to get this out to all Australians, and these days, because media is so fragmented now, we've got a lot of work to do.

MARK LEVY: Is everyone on the same page, Andrew? I played the audience and the listeners some comments from Liberal Senator Andrew McLachlan around migration. He says it's not the rhetoric that the Australian people need to hear at the moment. There's been a lot of infighting in years gone by. Are you confident everyone's on the same page with the agenda and policies you've got to sell over the next two years?

ANDREW HASTIE: Yes, overwhelmingly we're on the same page. Senator McLachlan from South Australia – he's outspoken and he can do that as a backbencher. But we're locked in behind Angus. This is a shared platform and vision for the country, and we're going to prosecute the arguments very strongly over the coming months.

MARK LEVY: What are your thoughts on the changes to capital gains and also negative gearing, Andrew? Because, mate, I can't tell you how angry my listeners are. Every morning I could do three hours on the changes to capital gains and also negative gearing. Can you understand why the Australian people are upset about this?

ANDREW HASTIE: I sure can. Number one: it's a breach of trust. The Prime Minister and Jim Chalmers went to the last election ruling out changes to negative gearing and capital gains taxation, and they've broken that promise. They've told a lie, and they're treating the Australian people as mugs. So, I think the first point is a breach of trust. But secondly, this is a war on aspiration. If we want to solve problems like housing – which is a broken dream for many Australians now – we've got to cut immigration, which is why our policy is so superior to Labor's. Labor didn't talk about immigration at all in their Budget, and what Angus Taylor has said is that we're going to peg the net overseas migration figure every year to housing builds. So, the number of houses that we build each year as a country – that's the amount of people that can come to our shores. And I think that makes sense, and that will give young Australians hope of getting their own home.

MARK LEVY: I agree with you – I agree wholeheartedly with you – because it's an issue that a lot of people have been talking about, and it desperately needs to change. As far as the government of the day is concerned – the Albanese government – you pick up the front page of the Australian Financial Review today, and these changes to capital gains and negative gearing. The Albanese government plans to rush through both houses of Parliament before the winter break, and they're going to buddy up to the Greens. Now, I just want to play you something that Anthony Albanese said in a debate prior to the last election. Here he is.

*EXCERPT PLAYS*

MARK LEVY: Is this another lie from the Prime Minister, Andrew?

ANDREW HASTIE: I don't need to tell your listeners that, I think they can hear it with their own ears. He said he wouldn't be working with the Greens, and here we are to slam home new taxes on the Australian people. So, yes, it is a lie. Prime Ministers have to work with everyone in the Parliament, but he was very explicit there, and he's now using the Greens to slam home a broken promise and to increase taxation on the Australian people. No wonder your listeners are so angry about this.

MARK LEVY: It just goes to the integrity of the government and the Prime Minister, Andrew. I mean, we've got two years until the next election. He's going to stand there at press conferences, he's going to make announcements, he's going to tell the Australian people why they're going to be better off under an Albanese government post the next election. But I think most Australians at the moment – those who stop being the street, those who call the open line – are saying: how can we believe a bloke who has lied not once, not twice, not three times, it's just over and over again? He's a blatant bald-faced liar!

ANDREW HASTIE: You said it right there, Mark. Angus Taylor has been upfront with people. People might have thought, that's a pretty tough Budget in Reply, but he's been up front early. He's saying we're going to cut immigration, we're getting out of Net Zero, we're going to index income tax so that the government can't keep stealing from people as inflation creeps up. We're going to fix the national construction code – it started out as a 200-page document in 1988 and now it's blown out to 2,400 pages. The average print edition of the Bible is about 1,200 pages. I mean, this construction code is a monster, which is why it's so hard to build homes in this country. Angus is leading us on that charge, and people know exactly where he stands, and that's really important if you want to be Prime Minister of this country.

MARK LEVY: Andrew, let me lean on your portfolio as the Shadow Minister for Industry. Front page of The Australian newspaper today – and there was an announcement yesterday from the government – that the lifespan will be extended for our Collins class submarines, they're expected to last another decade. However, what they're doing is scaling back the improvements and the upgrades to the Collins class submarines. Where does that leave us? I suppose we're relying on this AUKUS agreement, but I would have thought these Collins class submarines, they're really, really important as well, are they not?

ANDREW HASTIE: They're very important, and that's what we've got. If we had to fight tonight, the Collins class submarines are what we have, and so we need to maintain them. What the Albanese government hasn't done is it hasn't accounted for AUKUS in the Defence budget, and so they've been shifting money out of Army, Navy, and Air Force sustainment budgets and projects into AUKUS without actually increasing the overall spend. Now, what that means is that we're losing capability, and that's why they're cutting back on the Collins class upgrades – new diesel engines, new generators – all the sorts of things inside the submarine, which will give it enduring life. They're cutting back on those, and that means we won't have the capability. But the Coalition – we've committed to get to three per cent of GDP, which is significantly bigger than Labor. We think Australian national security is important. Again, your listeners Mark, they only have to look around the world, whether it's the Middle East, Europe, and then the emerging challenges and threats in the Indo-Pacific – we need to have a strong Defence Force.

MARK LEVY: Absolutely. Hey, while we're on defence, I wanted to get your take on this story as a veteran, but also as a politician these days. The parents of Cameron Baird – a war hero who was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross – had their funding to travel to events representing their son cut by the Albanese government. Doug and Kaye Baird accepted their son's posthumous VC in 2014 after he was killed in Afghanistan, and they were offered a travel allowance by the Abbott government to attend official engagements and speak at schools, RSLs, sporting clubs – but that's been cut in half by the government. That is disgusting.

ANDREW HASTIE: Yes, this is very personal for me, Mark, because I was over there when Cam was killed. I actually spoke to him at breakfast the morning of his death and he was attached to my troop – him and his team – for about two weeks prior. It was a really hard day. And so, to hear that his parents, Doug and Kaye, who faithfully keep his memory alive and also are the ambassador for his Victoria Cross, to have their travel allowance cut – which is a mere less than $6,000 a year – I think it's a disgrace. I think the minister should intervene here, and they should reconcile this and look after this family who've given their son in the service of our nation.

MARK LEVY: Andrew, I've spent a fair bit of time talking to veterans and looking into veterans’ affairs and looking at the structure of the organisation, and everything else. I've lost complete faith in Matt Keogh as the Minister for Veterans Affairs. Do you have any faith in the minister responsible?

ANDREW HASTIE: I'll be frank here, Mark, I know Matt. Matt is my neighbour – I've got a lot of time for Matt, and I'm going to make personal representation to him on this. Because this is an oversight that is not consistent with Matt, the Minister, and I reckon we can get a good outcome here. So, I'm going to give him a call and write a letter to him.

MARK LEVY: Alright, well, keep me in the loop with that, because it needs to be overturned pretty quickly, because these parents, Doug and Kaye have been through enough. For goodness' sake, they should be able to at least travel the country and talk about what their hero son did for this country. Before you go, I'm going to ask you this question, because you seem to be a bit all over the place – the Coalition – in respect of One Nation. I was enlightened by the fact that Angus Taylor said to Ben Fordham in the breakfast studio here earlier this week that he's willing to have a conversation with Pauline Hanson. Jane Hume was non-committal. Where are you on the fact that we need to unite the right vote in a bid to oust this Labor government? Are you prepared to at least have a conversation under Angus Taylor with Pauline Hanson and One Nation?

ANDREW HASTIE: I'll never say never. We've obviously been in coalition with the Nationals for 100 years. We've had a few bust ups along the way, but it's been a great election-winning coalition. We're obviously down in the polls, things are changing both across the centre right and the centre left, we're seeing peak disruption in our politics and in the economy. I never say never, but these aren't conversations for me. I'm just going to keep fighting for what I believe in WA, but also nationally, particularly as it comes to industry and sovereign capability.

MARK LEVY: Alright, fantastic, Andrew. Thanks for your time, as always, mate. I really appreciate you making some time in the diary for us this morning. Thanks so much.

ANDREW HASTIE: Pleasure, Mark.

[ENDS]