THE HON ANDREW HASTIE MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR HOME AFFAIRS
FEDERAL MEMBER FOR CANNING

TRANSCRIPT

INTERVIEW WITH PETER STEFANOVIC, SKY NEWS

Wednesday 6 August 2025

Topics: Labor’s roundtable for higher taxes, Tony Burke’s visa selection process, Gaza conflict.

E&OE……………………………………

PETER STEFANOVIC: Let's bring in Shadow Home Affairs Minister, Andrew Hastie. Good to see you bright and early this morning, Andrew. Let's start there. I mean, as Trudy pointed out, this roundtable appears to be getting watered down by the day. I mean, are you of the view that anything is actually going to be achieved here?

SHADOW MINISTER FOR HOME AFFAIRS, THE HON ANDREW HASTIE MP: Good morning, Pete. Well, it'll be interesting to see what happens. It looks like a talk fest, and I think there's an internal dynamic as well. Jim Chalmers obviously has his eye on the big prize, and this would be a great win for him as a Treasurer with aspirations to be Prime Minister. So I suspect the Prime Minister and his office is sort of dampening things a little bit for Jim Chalmers. But of course, this isn't some sort of consensus building activity for Labor to just continue taxing the Australian people, to keep driving our productivity into the ground. We'll be watching this very closely, but it's certainly not a reason to suddenly start taxing Australians more, which is what we are concerned about. We want to see tax reform, but meaningful tax reform that delivers more money back to the Australian people so they can make choices about how they live.

PETER STEFANOVIC: I've spoken to a few of your colleagues in recent days, Andrew and you know, the Liberal Party is firmly against any tax increase. But would tax reform inevitably lead to a tax increase somewhere along the line?

ANDREW HASTIE: These are questions which will be debated over the coming months and years. Certainly we want tax reform, but it's got to work in the interest of the Australian people. People are doing it really tough out there, and I think the current tax system needs to be reformed, to be modernised, to recognize the challenges that families particularly are experiencing.

PETER STEFANOVIC: Let's get to your opponent, Tony Burke. He said a couple of days ago that he couldn't care less about free speech if it undermines social cohesion after blocking dozens of visas - Kanye West was among them, former Israeli politicians and other. What are your thoughts on those comments?

ANDREW HASTIE: I want to know what standard Tony Burke is applying. He's been making these decisions behind closed doors. We're not actually clear on what the standard is. So more than happy for people who don't conform to Australian values to be denied a visa, we just want to know what the standard is, and we want it to be applied consistently. Tony Burke is the Minister for Home Affairs, not for double standards, and he needs to become clear about what the standard is.

PETER STEFANOVIC: I haven't heard anything to the contrary here, but Kanye West, people like that, not coming here, this former Israeli politician who's been critical of terrorist’s children in the past, you'd be okay with them being kept out?

ANDREW HASTIE: I just want to know what the standard is so that we can objectively assess each case, not just on the Minister's desk, but also publicly as well. Because, I mean, we saw the bridge march over the weekend. We saw Al Qaeda flags, we saw an ISIS flag, we saw PLO flags. There are all sorts of undesirable characters in this country at the moment who are un-Australian in their values. And so we just want to know what the standard is and we want to see it applied evenly.

PETER STEFANOVIC: Just on that, Andrew, what did you make of that? Because, you know, you had members of the government who were trumpeting the success of that march, and like you pointed out, yes, some of those flags are in support of Iran, support of others as well. What came to your mind there?

ANDREW HASTIE: Pete, I'm an Australian, and I want to channel what a lot of regular Australians are thinking out there, and we're just sick and tired of seeing these ancient hatreds spill out onto our streets. This is Australia. All of us who are citizens have obligations to our country, to our values, and we don't want to see these hatreds imported to our country. So if people want to contest this stuff, that's great, you can do it in the Middle East, but not here on our iconic Harbor Bridge. I think that sentiment is pretty widespread.

PETER STEFANOVIC: Okay, let's go to the Middle East now and this question of declaring a state of Palestine. The Prime Minister had a call with the French President overnight. He's meeting with Mahmoud Abbas at the UN next month at the General Assembly there. Do you feel like there's an inevitability about all of this, that Australia will follow France's lead?

ANDREW HASTIE: I think we need to be really careful here. There's a lot of conditions to be met before we can actually have a Palestinian state. Of course, we all want a two-state solution, but who's going to be the governing authority? Hamas - a group of people committed to the destruction of Israel? How's that going to work? Who's going to be the leader? And, Pete, if you pull out a Google Earth and you look at Gaza right now, it's rubble. You can literally see on Google Earth that it's rubble so how is a state going to function? There's a lot of things that have to happen before we get to that point yet and my concern is that by recognising a Palestinian state now with Hamas in command and control of Gaza, we're just emboldening terrorism. But also for Israel, I want to know what the end game is. You know, this war has been going on for two years. They were right to go after Hamas. They were right to fight for their hostages. There are still hostages being held. But what's the end game here? I think that's what a lot of Australians are asking.

PETER STEFANOVIC: Well, yeah, the Israeli government at the moment is considering a full scale re occupation of Gaza. Would you be against that?

ANDREW HASTIE: Look, I've supported Israel since October 7, but I want to know what the end game is. Like everyone, we want peace, and that involves compromise. This has been going on for thousands of years. People who just rush to a two-state solution, it's a bit of a crutch. There are no easy solutions here. We've got to be realistic here, this has been happening for a long time, and so we've got to create a better political reality - that's going to require compromise. But as long as Hamas is there, and as long as Hamas is committed to destruction of Israel, a two-state solution is going to be very difficult. And I suspect if you polled Palestinians, that if you polled Israelis, there wouldn't be a lot of support for a two-state solution right now, as it is.

PETER STEFANOVIC: What sort of a difference would making such a declaration actually make on the ground?

ANDREW HASTIE: Precisely. I don't know. And so I fear this is being driven by domestic political concerns, which is not a good enough reason to rush into these massive decisions that have consequences, right? You just played that video of that poor hostage. My heart breaks for those families. It's going to require compromise, and there are no easy solutions. I'm not going to get on morning TV and say, do this, do that. It's really tough.

PETER STEFANOVIC: Yes, that's why we still don't have had the answers after so long, but good to see you this morning, Andrew. Appreciate it. Talk to you again soon.

[ENDS]