THE HON ANDREW HASTIE MP

SHADOW MINISTER FOR INDUSTRY AND SOVEREIGN CAPABILITY
FEDERAL MEMBER FOR CANNING

TRANSCRIPT

INTERVIEW WITH MARK LEVY, 2GB

Thursday 4 June 2026

Topics: Parliamentary behaviour; Liberal Party; AUKUS; funding re-instated to the Baird family; Labor’s toxic taxes; illicit tobacco; One Nation.

E&OE……………………………………

MARK LEVY: Mr Hastie, good morning to you.

ANDREW HASTIE: Good morning, Mark. Great to be with you.

MARK LEVY: Were you a naughty boy yesterday, getting kicked out of the Parliament? What happened there?

ANDREW HASTIE: It was the first time I've been kicked out in 10 years, Mark, and I don't think I was that naughty, actually. Richard Marles had the call, he was answering a question about Defence estate, and as your listeners would know, Richard Marles and Labor are selling off a lot of our prime Defence bases and real estate, including the Swan Island golf course. Richard Marles is an avid golfer, and so I shouted out, "come on, Richard, save the Swan Island golf course", and the Speaker saw fit to boot me out. So, there we go.

MARK LEVY: Does it feel like you get roustled by the principal when Milton Dick's up there saying, the Member for Canning will remove himself under whatever the code is?

ANDREW HASTIE: Exactly right. It's been a while since I've been in the principal's office, but it did feel like that.

MARK LEVY: While we're talking about Question Time – every time I raise question time, I inevitably get messages from people, right? I was thinking about this this morning, knowing you were coming on. The Prime Minister, when he came to power, said that he wanted a kinder Parliament but we're not really seeing that at the moment. The PM has labelled your leader a Temu Abbott, and referring to Angus Taylor as the Leader of the Liberal One Nationals Party. That comes off the back of what Angus Taylor had to say about the Prime Minister last week. Is it time for a bit of a reset in Question Time do you think, Andrew?

ANDREW HASTIE: Parliament is always combative, and I think you get good results. There's a level of decorum required, though, and I do think it's up to the Prime Minister to lead. He's talked a big game about a gentler, friendlier Parliament, but we haven't seen that. And the way they treated Peter Dutton in the lead up to the last election, I think was indicative of how they actually do politics, and it's pretty grubby. So, we fight fire with fire, and I think what people saw from Angus Taylor last week was ticker – a bit of fire in the belly. Angus is gunning for the Prime Minister because he's going to stand in the way of these taxes that they are sneakily bringing on the Australian people.

MARK LEVY: I think it's unfair to refer to Angus Taylor as a Temu Abbott. I thought his Budget in Reply speech was brilliant, and he's certainly starting to show a bit of fight. Just on Tony Abbott – he's now been confirmed as the president of the federal Liberal Party. Colleagues of yours, like Tim Wilson, say he won't have sway with the party, but Mr Abbott says he won't be silenced. It'd be a silly decision to ignore a former Prime Minister's advice, wouldn't it, Andrew?

ANDREW HASTIE: The President of the federal party is administrative, but Tony Abbott is a very prominent Australian former Prime Minister, a well-established author with his best-selling history on Australia. So, Tony has a voice, he's got a lot of experience – he'll obviously perform his leadership role, but he's also going to speak out, and people will listen. I don't think Angus is worried about that at all. I think there's a fair bit of symmetry between the two on the way they think about things, so, I think Tony Abbott's just going to support Angus.

MARK LEVY: I was thinking, though, Andrew, you've got a formidable campaigner, and let's face it, Tony Abbott was a brilliant opposition leader, and some will say that he was a very good Prime Minister - some will argue the opposing view on that. But Angus Taylor needs to show that he's got the fight, just like Tony Abbott. You have a strong Federal President, you need a strong Leader as well – he can't be overshadowed by what Mr Abbott is saying.

ANDREW HASTIE: Yeah, and Angus is really building the team at the moment. He's doing things internally, which the Australian public can't see, but he's driving policy formulation. I'm really excited about that. We got a taste of that at the Budget in Reply: the Tax Back Guarantee – giving Australians more of their own tax back. Cutting immigration and pegging the net overseas migration figure to housing completions. Reserving welfare and the NDIS for Australian citizens only. And then getting out of Net Zero. This is really good stuff, and he's driving the team to get down into the granular detail and have plans that the Australian people can be confident will work for them.

MARK LEVY: Let's move to AUKUS. The Prime Minister has been dealing with discontent about the deal. The likes of Ed Husic say the deal we're getting now, it's not what we were promised. Is he right to call for it to be reviewed, Andrew?

ANDREW HASTIE: No, I don't think he is, and I think he's being mischievous. But this is a direct challenge to the Prime Minister and to the Deputy Prime Minister, Richard Marles. They need to lead, they need to reaffirm their commitment, and they need to stare down the dissent that's coming out of the Labor caucus. We've committed to AUKUS on a bipartisan level. Sure, there are definitely challenges ahead when you look at the shipbuilding in the United States – it's behind schedule, there's some challenges there – and obviously the Labor government isn't adequately funding our Defence Force. So, there are some challenges with AUKUS, no question, but this is not helpful for our national security, it's not helpful for delivering the plan, and so I'd like to see more leadership from the Prime Minister and Richard Marles.

MARK LEVY: It's interesting. I was talking to Joel Fitzgibbon, a former Labor Defence Minister, who was stressing yesterday the importance of this AUKUS agreement. He was like you, thinking that there might be a fair few mischievous antics happening from inside the Labor Party. But he objected to this term that we're using in the media of "used submarines", and he made the point that it's like buying a 2025 model of a car that's come out in 2026 – they're not exactly used submarines, they're there and they're still capable of doing a job. Would you agree with that?

ANDREW HASTIE: I think Joel Fitzgibbon is right in that assessment. My issue is actually with the government and the lack of funding. When you look at the original ANZUS agreement, which is more than 75 years old, it specifically wrote into the treaty that both parties – that is Australia and the US – must invest in their own self-defence capability. The problem I have with this Labor government is that they're running down Defence, they're not committing enough investment and funding to Defence, and now they're selling off a lot of our prime bases and real estate. This is a government that is not serious about Defence, and I think the Americans are picking up that it's not so serious about AUKUS either.

MARK LEVY: Well, Andrew, while we're critical of the government, we should also praise the reversal of the stripping of the funding for the Baird family. The last time we spoke, a couple of weeks ago, you said: Mark, just hang on a second, I know Matt Keogh well, and I'm going to write to him and see if we can reinstate this funding. They've done the right thing here – well, the Minister has, anyway, hasn't he?

ANDREW HASTIE: That's right. I hung up from you, Mark, I picked up the phone, I dialled Matt Keogh, and I said: mate, I've just given you a little bit of space on 2GB, can we do the right thing by the Baird family and get this sorted, and by the way, I'll be writing a letter to follow up the phone call. And we got it done. So, sometimes it's important to maintain relationships, and Matt's done the right thing here.

MARK LEVY: That's good news. On the budget, though, I'm of the view that we should be doing more to support veterans rather than taking money away – and thankfully the money's been reinstated for the Invictus Games for the next three years as well. But just on the Budget, these tax changes to CGT and negative gearing, they're being rushed through the Parliament by the government. It will go to an inquiry for just two days, which is extraordinary. And the Australian Financial Review is reporting today, Andrew, that your party and the Greens are in talks to delay the bill further. Can you shed some light on that for us and where that's up to?

ANDREW HASTIE: These taxes were a surprise for everyone. In fact, the Prime Minister's told a lie – he said he wouldn't bring these taxes on, and now he is. We think that we should have a chance to review them through a committee process, and that's what we're working on doing. But the government is desperate to push it through the Parliament – ram it through today in a vote – and we want to slow that down, because I think the Australian people need a chance to ventilate their concerns about this.

MARK LEVY: There's got to be more scrutiny here, Andrew. From a government perspective, if you are making significant changes to our taxes – capital gains tax, the negative gearing as well – there's got to be more scrutiny and more questions asked. For the government to just say "two days", that just shows the arrogance of this Prime Minister and Treasurer, surely!

ANDREW HASTIE: It's absolute arrogance. They're treating the Australian people like mugs. So, absolutely, more scrutiny – Mark, you said it very well there – and that's what we're going to try and do. We're not going to let them get away with this.

MARK LEVY: Couple of quick ones before you go. Illicit tobacco, that's another big problem. This data that came out from the Bureau of Statistics yesterday, confirming an estimated 80 per cent of the cigarettes and vapes consumed in Australia last year were illegal. The government says they're stopping this stuff at the border. Clearly, that's just another lie from the government.

ANDREW HASTIE: It's an absolute joke. Eighty per cent of the cigarettes and vapes consumed in Australia last year were illegal. Nicotine consumption is up almost 40 per cent over the last decade. Tobacco consumed per person is up more than 20 per cent. This is what happens when the government loses control. This is what happens when your tax settings are so ridiculous that you kill the legitimate tobacco industry, and you create a black market run by criminals. This is a failure of the Albanese government.

MARK LEVY: Certainly, is. One Nation – the rise of one nation. I spoke to Pauline Hanson earlier this week. Look, it's there for everyone to see in these polls. I note yours is one of the seats that One Nation will be targeting. What's your response to the rise of One Nation and is there a lesson here for the major parties that a lot of Australians are just sick and tired of the political games that come out of Canberra?

ANDREW HASTIE: I think people are frustrated, and that's fair enough. We've got to do better, and that's what we're doing. That's what we saw in the Budget in Reply – we're out of Net Zero, cutting immigration, giving Australians an automatic tax cut every year. Every year there will be an NRL Grand Final – every year under the Coalition there will be a tax cut for the Australian people. And we're reserving welfare for Australian citizens, along with the NDIS. But look, One Nation has declared war on me and I'll take the fight – if they want to be my enemy, that's fine. My mission, though, is entirely focused on Labor, defeating Labor and forming a Coalition government. That's what I want – I thought that's what Pauline Hanson wanted, but she's targeting a bunch of Coalition seats, so there's questions for her. There's also questions about whether she's got what it takes, frankly. She's got a 12 per cent attendance record at Senate Estimates over the last decade. If I turned up to Parliament 12 per cent or if you turned up to 2GB 12 per cent of the time, you'd probably get sacked, along with me.

MARK LEVY: Let me ask you this, though, Andrew, just before you go, is this tricky for you? Because you're a veteran, you've stared down the enemy on battlefields, right? You just said there you're prepared to fight the enemy, which is One Nation. Having said that, your leader, Angus Taylor, has certainly softened his stance. He's saying that he's prepared to work with anybody to try and beat and oust this Labor government, whereas you're at the same time trying to hold on to your seat. How difficult is that going to be for you?

ANDREW HASTIE: I'm going to fight tooth and nail to defeat Labor, I'm going to fight tooth and nail to hold my seat, and so if One Nation wants to get in the way – look out.

MARK LEVY: Alright, Andrew, you've got a big week and another busy day ahead of you, mate. I thank you for joining us, and just apologise to Milton Dick – we don't like an upset Speaker down there in the House of Reps.

ANDREW HASTIE: Milton's a good guy. I want to make that very clear – I don't want to get a reprimand in Question Time.

MARK LEVY: Yeah, but he's a bloody Queenslander, Andrew! It's Origin time. We can't wrap the Queenslanders, fair dinkum.

ANDREW HASTIE: You're absolutely right. I can't reflect on the Speaker, and I wasn't. I simply wanted to report to you what I said.

MARK LEVY: Fair enough, you're allowed to be naughty from time to time, that's alright. Good on you, mate. We'll chat soon.

ANDREW HASTIE: Thank you.

[ENDS]