THE HON ANDREW HASTIE MP
 FEDERAL MEMBER FOR CANNING

TRANSCRIPT

INTERVIEW WITH GABRIELLA POWER, SKY NEWS

Thursday 18 December 2025

Topics: Bondi terrorist attack

E&OE……………………………………

GABRIELLA POWER: Joining us now is Liberal MP Andrew Hastie. Thank you so much for joining us. I know, like you, many Australians are feeling angry after this horrific massacre by an alleged Islamist gunman, and many of us, leading up to this massacre, saw the warnings that were there. They were clearly ignored, and right now we're hearing from relatives of victims, such as Matilda's father, say that Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese failed Matilda. And as we are recording this, we finally heard from Anthony Albanese, who seems to have buckled to pressure and admitted that we finally need to do more to stamp out antisemitism. This is what he's announced.

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GABRIELLA POWER: Andrew Hastie, can I get your response to this? Do you welcome these changes? Do they go far enough?

ANDREW HASTIE: It's good to be with you, Gabriella. Firstly, I'd say the Prime Minister is moving in the right direction. We do know that radical Islamic ideology and theology is the wellspring of antisemitism, and so all the hate preachers who have been encouraging this sort of violence need to be silenced, and we need to send a really strong message that there are penalties for it. I said yesterday that we should deport all non-citizen hate preachers who are advocating for violence, and I think in our federal laws, we need to make changes as well that send a signal. As a legislator, I want to see the proposed laws before I give my full assent, but I think the Prime Minister is moving in the right direction, because foremost is the security of the Australian people. And as an Australian democracy, we have standards. It's not just endless free speech, we actually have standards, and we need to root out and silence those who are preaching hate amongst us.

GABRIELLA POWER: Police have claimed that one of the alleged gunmen came under the influence of extremist preacher Wissam Haddad at the Al Madina Dawah Centre – a place described as a factory of hate. So this alleged radicalisation didn't occur in a war zone, it occurred in southwest Sydney. And the fear is, how many others are radicalised that we don't know about?

ANDREW HASTIE: That's a really good question, Gabriella. We have a serious problem that's homegrown. Of course, Islamic State, 10 years ago was at its height in the Middle East, in Syria and Iraq, and the first Trump presidency killed al-Baghdadi, the ISIS leader. But of course, this is much bigger than one person or one man. This is an ideology that has been transferred across the world through the web and online and so we have young Australians here who may have never been to those parts of the world but are deeply radicalised by their communities and the preachers that they associate with. So we do have a homegrown problem. We also have an immigration problem – I want to be very clear about that. We need to be very selective about who we let into our country. They need to affirm our values, our people, our country and I think the last 20 years, we've dropped the ball on that. So there's a lot of work to do, including in education as well, ay the way.

GABRIELLA POWER: Yeah, you have been speaking up about the genuine and serious concerns over mass migration, the pathway to get into this amazing country, for some time now – I mean, you resigned from the frontbench partly over this issue. And what has happened in Bondi really highlights just how serious this is, because we are a generous country, of course, built on migrants – and that's worth celebrating – but this alleged terror attack shows very clearly that not everyone who comes here shares Australia's values, and that is the reality that we are dealing with. You know, one of the alleged gunmen, the father arrived in Australia in 1998 on a student visa. His son was born in Australia and then allegedly radicalised here. This has slipped through the cracks. Claire Lehmann wrote in The Australian today: "if someone can live here for decades, raise their children here and still commit an act of terrorism, then the question is not whether immigration mattered, but whether we are being careful enough about who we let in." And she goes on to say that "this is not a story about a missed warning, it is a story about an immigration system designed to process people efficiently but poorly equipped to respond when its core assumptions fail." She writes, "being born in Australia does not guarantee allegiance, and paperwork does not dissolve pre-existing beliefs or loyalties. Yet our immigration policy has been built on the premise that it does," and I couldn't agree more with that.

ANDREW HASTIE: Yeah, I read Claire Lehmann's piece this morning. I thought it was spot on. I think of Jillian Segal's recommendation in her report on combating antisemitism, where she said we need to strengthen the migration act to make sure that we can adequately screen people coming to our country, and that we can actually refuse or cancel visas if people show extremist tendencies. I think the Department also has a duty and obligation to make sure that they're doing their job. They're not a travel agency. Their job is to protect Australians and conduct our immigration policy in the best interest of the Australian people. And I think we've been let down over the last 20 years, and I think the father and son shooters motivated by radical Islamic ideology – they're a case in point. The father was on a student visa, never took citizenship over the last 30 odd years. Never took citizenship, and here we are. So that's a real problem. And his son, of course, born here, but was pulling the trigger and took 15 innocent lives. People out there, I got to tell you, have had enough, and they want action.

GABRIELLA POWER: Absolutely. I mean, I've been speaking to plenty of people in, not just the Jewish community, but ever since this attack, and there's so much anger out there. It's also bizarre that we're not hearing our Prime Minister really speak about radical Islam. He was very reluctant to say it. I mean, he was more than happy to call out right-wing extremism following this attack, but he's been barely mentioning radical Islam.

ANDREW HASTIE: That's right. He's happy to talk about right-wing neo-Nazism – as I am – but he's also going to be honest with the Australian people and call it what it is. This was motivated by radical Islamic ideology and theology. And him and Laura Tingle both need to do their jobs. He's the Prime Minister. She is a senior reporter with our national broadcaster. It's time for truth. It's time to deal in reality and facts, and the facts are as plain as day – they need to acknowledge it.

GABRIELLA POWER: And I think people are just so frustrated that we have weak leadership in this country. And now the conversation – we have to be talking about the future of Australia. I mean, the heart and soul of Australia. Plenty of people are having that conversation amongst themselves, whether it's in cafes, out on the street as they go to Bondi and grieve and mourn for the 15 innocent people who have been killed. But if we don't make serious changes right now, what does the future of Australia look like?

ANDREW HASTIE: I think we're more divided, and I think we're going to see more of these attacks. We're going to see the Jewish community under increased pressure and subject to more violence. But it's not just the Jewish community. If we allow this sort of radical Islamic theology to flourish, what it does is it divides people into believers and infidels, and if you're not part of their grouping – you're an infidel and therefore a target. So we really need to stomp out this hate preach and this ideology that's shaping young hearts and minds. If we don't, well, we're going to reap the whirlwind. And so it's really on the Prime Minister and his team, with the support of the Opposition and all the state premiers, to get on with the job of making sure that we send a signal to the community that this won't be tolerated.

GABRIELLA POWER: Andrew Hastie, thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate it.

ANDREW HASTIE: My pleasure.

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