THE HON ANDREW HASTIE MP

SHADOW MINISTER FOR INDUSTRY AND SOVEREIGN CAPABILITY
FEDERAL MEMBER FOR CANNING

TRANSCRIPT

INTERVIEW WITH SARAH FERGUSON, 7.30

Wednesday 8 July 2026

Topics: Iran war, One Nation, multiculturalism, nuclear proliferation, Chinese missile testing, United States.

E&OE……………………………………

SARAH FERGUSON: Andrew Hastie is the Shadow Minister for Industry and Sovereign Capability. He joins me now from Perth. Andrew Hastie, welcome.

ANDREW HASTIE: Good evening, Sarah.

SARAH FERGUSON: Just on the international news, first, President Trump says the ceasefire with Iran is over. He called the Iranians scum and liars. You've been very critical of this war from the outset. Did you anticipate this?

ANDREW HASTIE: Sarah, I'm not surprised that we've ended up in this position. I supported Operation Midnight Hammer last year in June, where President Trump bombed the facilities at Natanz and Fordow within Iran, where nuclear enrichment was taking place. I supported that. I have been sceptical of the war effort since February of this year, and particularly with the changing rationale for the war, and I think the reason why it's so difficult to negotiate a peace at this point is because all Iran has to do to maintain leverage at the negotiating table is to keep the Strait closed, and all they need is a few rockets fired each week to stop shipping passing through that really important economic channel.

SARAH FERGUSON: Let's come back to Perth. You're back in Perth for the winter recess. You wrote to your constituents recently, saying that One Nation had declared war on you, and in return you said they shall have war. What does going to war with One Nation actually mean?

ANDREW HASTIE: I think it means being the best, most competitive Liberal Party that we can be. It's no secret that we're in the valley at the moment, but we want to get to the summit, and that's what we're doing under Angus Taylor. That takes policy—we're doing policy development as a team. Angus Taylor is leading that policy development, and I've got to say he's doing a very good job of it, but One Nation, they are focused on a hostile takeover of the centre-right. I still think the Liberal Party carries the flame for the centre-right movement. I want to see Angus Taylor as our next Prime Minister, and that's why I'm not going to mess around with One Nation. My focus is defeating the Albanese Government.

SARAH FERGUSON: You've been fiercely attacked by Pauline Hanson for giving evidence against Ben Roberts-Smith in his case. What does that tell you about the morality of Pauline Hanson's politics?

ANDREW HASTIE: I don't think One Nation really cares about our institutions in the long run. Institutions are so critical to Australia, and they're very fragile. You ask any veteran of the Afghan war, and they will tell you how fragile our institutions are. But fundamental to our democracy here is Parliament and the rule of law, and where we've seen weak institutions across the world, we've seen corruption, we've seen black markets, we've seen cronyism. One of the reasons why Viktor Orbán lost the prime ministership in Hungary this year was because of the endemic corruption in his government, so I think it's really important that all political parties respect and uphold Australian institutions.

SARAH FERGUSON: Interesting, because the federal Liberal President, Tony Abbott, was quite a fan of Viktor Orbán. Was that enthusiasm misplaced?

ANDREW HASTIE: Look, I think Tony can explain his positions. I don't keep track of all his sayings and writings, but a good read of Viktor Orbán’s defeat is pretty clear, and it's pretty clear that corruption damaged his government, and when economically hard-pressed voters see corruption and poor governance, they are ruthless at the ballot box, and I think that's what happened to the Orbán Government in Hungary.

SARAH FERGUSON: Now, Nigel Farage in the UK is facing his biggest challenge because of the huge so-called gifts from rich friends. Should the gifts and donations that Pauline Hanson has received from Australia's richest businesswoman, Gina Rinehart, get closer scrutiny in your opinion?

ANDREW HASTIE: I think the one thing that makes Westminster democracy unique is that all Parliamentarians are held to the same standard. I think Nigel Farage is finding that out at the moment, and that's why he's going to a by-election. And I think the same standard has to be applied to all Parliamentarians in the Australian Parliament, as for Pauline Hanson, I don't keep a close track of all her gifts and her support, but needless to say, it's one rule for all, and I don't think One Nation should get any special exceptions.

SARAH FERGUSON: As I said you're back home in Perth, where you, we understand, have increased protection from the federal government, which you believe is connected to a campaign against you by One Nation supporters. Could the One Nation leadership have prevented the impact that you have seen on your wife and children?

ANDREW HASTIE: Sarah, I have a lot of sympathy for One Nation voters. In fact, I want them in my column. Many of them are frustrated with issues around immigration, with housing, energy costs, and with an economy that is going backwards along with their living standards. So, I think there are some very legitimate concerns from One Nation voters, but it comes down to the party leadership of One Nation, and I don't think they're serious about governing for all Australians. I think the way they've conducted some of their online campaigning recently reveals that, and yes, it is personal for me, because it does involve my family now. So that was the backdrop to my comments.

SARAH FERGUSON: If you were in a stronger position to influence the Liberal fight back against the existential threat of One Nation, what would you do differently?

ANDREW HASTIE: Well, I think I'm in a very good position to influence the fight back. Angus Taylor is doing a good job of policy development, as I said at the start of the interview. I'm his Deputy Leader in the House, and I'm also in the Industry and Sovereign Capability portfolio. These are very important areas for our national life. We can't keep bailing out and subsidising heavy industry, for example, as we've seen the Labor Government do with the smelters around the country. I think critical to people, though, is understanding their problems, listening to them, and I think we are listening, and then it's doing the hard work of actually developing policies, costing those policies, and then selling those policies, and Angus Taylor, as I said, is leading that work, and I fully support him in that.

SARAH FERGUSON: You don't endorse Pauline Hanson's view of an Australian monoculture. The Prime Minister answered very simply when asked about this. He said: "Multiculturalism is who we are." Do you agree with him?

ANDREW HASTIE: I think monoculturalism, as put out by Pauline Hanson, and multiculturalism, as you know, advocated by some people on the left, are both loaded political terms. You've got the woke right pushing for monoculturalism, you've got the woke left pushing for multiculturalism. I sit with most sensible mainstream Australians, somewhere in the centre, I think there is a third way. I think we're all signed up to the Australian project. I think immigration has happened, that's a reality. It doesn't matter where you're from or what colour your skin is. If you sign up to our shared language, which is English, our shared institutions like parliament and the rule of law, or our judiciary, and if you sign up to our shared symbol, that is the Australian National Flag, then you're Australian. Doesn't matter if you have a curry on the weekend or whether you go to mass at a Greek Orthodox church or whether you celebrate the Chinese New Year, if you sign up to those things, you're Australian. And so people who are trying to push us into monoculturalism or multiculturalism for political reasons, I think, is unhelpful, and it's divisive to our country.

SARAH FERGUSON: Why is multiculturalism a left term?

ANDREW HASTIE: Well, it's not a left term, but it has been loaded up with connotations the same way monoculturalism has been loaded up.

SARAH FERGUSON: What are those? What are those connotations?

ANDREW HASTIE: Well, in the traditional context of multiculturalism, I grew up in the inner west of Sydney. Where I grew up we had a lot of Chinese immigrants, we had Koreans, we had Greeks, Italians, that was my schooling experience, and it was also my church experience when my father was a minister, where we had multiple congregations - Chinese, Korean, Western Samoan. We even had an easy English service for immigrants. So, what I saw there were people from different countries, but united by a common faith, common values, and a common institution. That's what multiculturalism means to me, but there are people who would advocate for multiculturalism, where we balkanize and ghettoize our country. Where people are able to opt out of our language, they're able to opt out of our institutions, they're out of, they're able to opt out of our symbols, and I reject that as much as I reject those who insist on a monoculturalism—which is sort of based in ethnicity—if you're not white, you can't really be Australian. They’re both polar opposites. There is a third way, and that is just recognising that we have a great country full of diversity. We speak a common language. It doesn't matter if you speak a second or a third or fourth language, as long as we all speak English. We sign up to our institutions, Parliament being supreme above them all, and of course our shared symbols, one of them being the Australian National Flag.

SARAH FERGUSON: We saw China test fire a nuclear capable long range ballistic missile this week. In your recent Tom Hughes oration, you talk about Australia in the 20th century missing out on the opportunity to become a nuclear power, should that decision be revisited?

ANDREW HASTIE: No, it shouldn't. We signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1970 and with that went any aspirations to be a nuclear power. The point I made in that speech is that you either are a nuclear power yourself or you build a very close relationship with a nuclear power, and in our case, that's our alliance with the United States. We live under the United States umbrella. The consequence of that is that it does impact our sovereignty, and it also means we have less strategic agency. But nonetheless, the test conducted by China is worrying for a number of reasons, and primarily the lack of transparency and the lack of dialogue from China. I think one thing we need to avoid in this new era of geopolitical competition is a Cuban Missile Crisis 2.0.

SARAH FERGUSON: Does that issue of losing some sovereignty to the United States matter more when we have the Leader, the Commander of the US forces calling people “liars” and “scum”?

ANDREW HASTIE: Well, it does, and again I come back to the institutions, I think the US Constitution and the different elements of the US government, whether it be the judiciary, the legislature, or the executive, they constrain someone like President Trump, and he's had a series of losses in court, for example. So, I think we share institutions with the United States, and that means we have a common understanding about these things. But certainly, it does mean that we have to sometimes be very honest as a friend to the United States, and it's in instances like the Iran war that kicked off on February 28 where we can speak our mind. President Trump did not seek to build a coalition, and surprise, surprise, it was very difficult to then build a coalition to try and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

SARAH FERGUSON: Andrew Hastie. Thank you very much indeed for joining us.

ANDREW HASTIE: Thank you, Sarah.

[ENDS]