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

TRANSCRIPT
INTERVIEW WITH MARK LEVY, 2GB

Thursday 27 August 2026

Topics: Veterans’ allied health cap; immigration; Secret Harbour by-election.

E&OE……………………………………

MARK LEVY: Andrew, good morning to you.

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

MARK LEVY: Mate, I think those two bits of audio summarise perfectly the madness that we face in this country. We've got the Greens banging on about climate change, and we've got the Prime Minister in regional New South Wales today, where we're ripping up prime agricultural land through this push to renewables, which is destroying this country.

ANDREW HASTIE: It is. Both men are deeply out of touch. Senator Shoebridge should have just stopped when he expressed solidarity with the Nepalese people and those who suffered this tragedy, but then he moved to climate change. Of course, all the Greens want to do is tax us more and control our lives and they'll do anything – they'll even stand on a tragedy like this to make their political points. And then the Prime Minister – it's his government which is forcing all this renewable energy on the Australian people. They are subsidising it. The Capacity Investment Scheme, which underwrites all these uneconomic renewables projects – this is all the solar and wind that's being built on a lot of our farming land around this country, being imposed on local communities – that's all being funded by the taxpayer. Again, he just doesn't get it. He's not listening.

MARK LEVY: And we've got Chris Bowen, the Energy Minister, running around town, even travelling the world on the taxpayer credit card, spruiking Net Zero and the need to transition to renewables. He's got his big Fiji COP conference coming up that no one's interested in attending, and we're the ones footing the bill. We've got hardworking Australians, Andrew, out there at the moment that can't pay their bills, they can't meet their mortgage payments. How do you think they feel watching people like Bobo the Clown travel the world, spruiking Net Zero and renewables when there's been no reduction in our electricity bills here at home? It's madness.

ANDREW HASTIE: Families, small businesses, heavy industry – everyone is suffering under Labor's Net Zero economy. We are out of Net Zero. Our fundamental priority is cheaper power for all Australians, which means we're not focusing on climate targets – we're focusing on delivering cheaper coal, gas, and other sources of power. Just yesterday, I was working through the savings we could make by cutting out some of these programs, and I came across a line in the budget: the Net Zero Economy Authority. Put a line straight through it. We don't need a Net Zero Economy Authority telling us how to live. We need the government delivering cheaper power for Australians, and that's what our plan is all about.

MARK LEVY: Well said. I want to turn to this allied health cap for our veterans, Andrew. I'm very proud of the position I've taken and the fight I've taken up on behalf of our veterans, including people like yourself, mate, who have served this country. I just want to play a couple of calls that we've had, because I must admit, mate, it's been a fairly emotional week and a half on this program, trying to get some accountability out of Matt Keogh, who I know is a friend of yours, but also a political opponent. I just want to play you caller Tim, a veteran who phoned through. He was at the hospital, mate, he broke down because of what the government's doing to him.

*EXCERPT PLAYS*

MARK LEVY: I've heard from Tim, he's doing well, and that's the main thing. And Tim, if you're listening this morning, we again thank you for what you've done for this country. And Andrew, I took another call from a veteran, Chris May OAM, who set up a veteran charity himself. He went on two deployments to Afghanistan. He said this the other day.

*EXCERPT PLAYS*

MARK LEVY: Andrew Hastie, as someone who stood alongside brave men like that on the battlefields, how do those calls make you feel?

ANDREW HASTIE: The calls from Tim and Chris are heartbreaking. Our veterans shouldn't be treated like this. This is a saving which can be made elsewhere in the Budget. Just look at what they're doing with energy: $70 billion potentially with the Capacity Investment Scheme, and they're stripping out $748 million from veterans for allied healthcare. It's got to be reversed, and it's unacceptable. This is not how you treat those who serve our country. You're absolutely right, Mark – you've been ahead on this, and you're absolutely spot on.

MARK LEVY: Do you have any faith in Matt Keogh?

ANDREW HASTIE: We've called on Matt Keogh to resign, and if he won't resign, then the Prime Minister should sack him. This is this is a repeated series of failures – whether it's the Cam Baird VC funding for his parents for their work that they do sharing the news about what he did for us overseas, or whether it's the allied healthcare stuff. We think it's time for renewal in the ministry.

MARK LEVY: You and I have spoken, Andrew, and you lean on your experience here – you've been over in the Middle East, you fought terrorists. At the same time, we're allowing those who harbour the same ideology to come back to this country – they being the so-called ISIS brides – and we've got veterans like Tim and Chris who jump online and chat to me, pouring their heart out because they feel forgotten. I just don't know how the Prime Minister and the likes of Matt Keogh can stand there on Anzac Day and Remembrance Day or look veterans in the eyes and genuinely say they care. Clearly, they don't.

ANDREW HASTIE: No, and it's so frustrating for people. There are a lot of people out there who feel forgotten by this government, and that's why they're making their voices heard – that's why they're getting more politically active than they ever have. Most people who are living quiet lives don't take much notice of politics, but we're seeing people in the suburbs who are working busy jobs, trying to raise families, now getting very politically active because they've been forgotten by this government. Whether it's veterans, small business owners, families – you name it; people feel forgotten. And immigration, when we're bringing back ISIS bribes, and then we're punishing veterans by putting a cap on allied health services, it's pretty clear where the government's priorities are, and they're not for the forgotten people of Australia.

MARK LEVY: Immigration is the other major talking point at the moment. Front page of the Australian today – apparently, the government are not too far away from announcing its immigration plans. One party that seems to be all over the place at the moment, and you're up against One Nation in your own electorate, Andrew. David Farley went on ABC Insiders on Sunday and virtually blew the 130,000 number out of the park. Pauline Hanson's come out and said it's wrong, and then David Farley's doubled down. Can we believe what One Nation is saying?

ANDREW HASTIE: I think they're a bit all over the place, to be honest. There are so many different positions, I couldn't actually tell you what One Nation's position is. David Farley came out and said there's such a thing as a true NOM. Well, there isn't a true NOM or a fake NOM, there's just a net overseas migration figure. Our plan is to cut immigration and build more homes, and we will peg the net overseas migration figure to the amount of homes built every year. We will announce our figure in due course once we've taken in new housing data, immigration data, labour force data. But your listeners might know that only 170,000 homes were built last year, so you get a sense of where we're headed. But One Nation are anywhere from 130,000 to 230,000. And to be honest, when it comes to immigration, we've got to get this right. We can't mess around. This is a complex program. There are all sorts of visa types, whether it's the permanent migration program, student visas, partner visas, family visas, skilled work visas-we've got to get the balance right, and that's why you need to be considered and deliberate. That's what we're doing. We're taking our time, but we want to get this right, and we want to deliver for the forgotten people of Australia.

MARK LEVY: What's the pressure like over in your own electorate, Andrew? We're on the other side of the country, obviously. I took a call from Bernard yesterday on the open line, sitting in the emergency room at Westmead Hospital – you're familiar with how big Westmead Hospital is. Twenty – five hours he waited. He presented with chest pains – 25 hours. It wasn't until he phoned me, we got in touch with the Health Minister's office, and he finally saw a doctor and went through the waiting room into the actual hospital itself. Are you experiencing the same sort of pressures in the West, or are things under control where you are?

ANDREW HASTIE: No. Whether it's Westmead or Western Australia, our hospitals are struggling under the load of our increased population over the last four to five years. Ramping hours are through the roof. We just don't have enough doctors. We don't have enough healthcare workers. And our hospitals aren't big enough to accommodate this rapid population growth, which is why immigration needs to come back. We need to allow time for our housing supply, our essential services like hospitals, our roads, and other really important parts of infrastructure to catch up. That's why our plan is to cut immigration and to allow those things to happen. We're going to invest in new housing; we're going to invest in new infrastructure and get this country going again.

MARK LEVY: You've got a pretty important by-election coming up in your neck of the woods this weekend. You want the Liberals to take this one from Labor, but once again, One Nation running a candidate. How are things looking over there in the West?

ANDREW HASTIE: I reckon it's going to be a really tight election. I don't know how it'll pan out, but One Nation has obviously put in a lot of effort over here in the Secret Harbour by-election, as have Labor. We've got a great candidate, a young bloke by the name of Ryan Robertson, who served aboard as a Submariner. He was Submariner of the Year in 2020 in the Royal Australian Navy. Young family, real estate agent now, local councillor. Let's see what happens. But you've got to have a plan, and we're for lower taxes, cheaper power, cutting immigration, and putting Australians first. Building more ports, roads, dams, power plants – all that stuff that we need to be a strong country.

MARK LEVY: I must admit, I raised my eyebrows when I heard the Liberal leader over there, Basil Zempilas, say that any loss for Labor is a win for Liberals – even a win to One Nation. Have you picked up the phone and spoken to Basil about those comments, Andrew?

ANDREW HASTIE: I got asked about those comments in the media, and I gave my view. My view is simple: whenever I've been in a race, I always want to be the bloke who breaks the tape first, right? And that's just a natural instinct – if you're running, you want to win. I've never yielded five metres before the finish line to another runner. And I think that's a good principle for politics as well. So I want the Liberals to do the best as we can, and we should be trying to break that tape and come first.

MARK LEVY: Alright, light-hearted one before you go. Angus Taylor, your boss, had a bit of a tumble in the Pollie Pedal. Please tell me, Andrew Hastie, you're not a Lycra wearer. Please tell me you do not wear Lycra, Andrew Hastie!

ANDREW HASTIE: Well, I did wear Lycra. I've done Pollie Pedal before, but now I'm trying to get stacked and I'm in the gym.

MARK LEVY: There's just something about a federal politician saying "I'm trying to get stacked" that doesn't sit well with me. But Andrew, thanks for getting up early.

ANDREW HASTIE: No worries. Cheers, Mark.

[ENDS]