INTERVIEW: Andrew Bolt, The Bolt Report

July 02, 2026

THE HON ANDREW HASTIE MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR INDUSTRY AND SOVEREIGN CAPABILITY
 FEDERAL MEMBER FOR CANNING
 
TRANSCRIPT
INTERVIEW WITH ANDREW BOLT, SKY NEWS
 
Thursday 2 July 2026
 
Topics: One Nation Victoria, the Liberal Party, Ben Roberts-Smith, Chinese military, Ukraine defence.
 
E&OE……………………………………
 
ANDREW BOLT: Andrew Hastie, thank you so much for joining us. First, One Nation is now the most popular party in Victoria, but I couldn't find a single One Nation spokesman in Victoria who was able or brave enough to say why at this stage really is essentially a ghost party with no politicians, no candidates, no policies. What does that say?
 
ANDREW HASTIE: Good evening, Andrew. I think it says there's something wrong there. Politics is about having a message, it's about having people, policies, and logistics. And One Nation has a strong message that's resonating with the Australian people, and they also have a growing logistics base, but people are really critical, as well as policies, and if people can't even front up and talk about what their plans are for the state of Victoria, I think that tells people that—exactly right—this is something of a ghost party at the moment riding the wave of popular sentiment.
 
ANDREW BOLT: Yeah, if it's a ghost party, though, why is it so popular compared to the Liberals and Labor?
 
ANDREW HASTIE: I think Australians are legitimately aggrieved about the state of our country. They're upset about years of mass immigration, about rising energy costs because of net zero. They're upset about declining living standards, and they're also seeing a less socially cohesive country. These are all legitimate issues, and people want solutions to them. And One Nation has successfully made a case for that. Now, we are responding to those issues as the Liberal Party. We're going to end Net Zero, we're going to cut immigration, we have a plan for the economy, but of course getting the message out is important. That's something that we're working on.
 
ANDREW BOLT: These attacks on you personally by One Nation. What's happening there? What's all that about—do you think?
ANDREW HASTIE: It's a really good question. I think there is something orchestrated online in the background. I think there's money behind it. I don't know about the source of that money, but certainly it's an area of reform, I think, because we have transparency with political parties, but there are actors online who are advocating political causes, and we know nothing about who is funding them and why. I knew this was coming, though. I had a call from a senior One Nation official—who I won't name for legal reasons—in the middle of April, who effectively told me that this was going to happen, and it was in response to some of the campaigning in Farrer, and sure enough, a deluge of personal attacks followed online. So, this wasn't a surprise to me, but there are consequences to this.
 
ANDREW BOLT: I'll get into those in a second. You, I think, probably do know or suspect strongly the money source of this campaign. I probably do too. How much of it is, do you think, associated with your giving evidence against Ben Roberts-Smith in his unsuccessful defamation case against the Nine newspapers.
 
ANDREW HASTIE: I think the first thing to note there is that I was one of almost 30 SAS soldiers who were subpoenaed to give evidence to the Federal Court, and people who have taken issue with me on that I say to them: ‘well, do you want me to be in contempt of the Federal Court, and do you want me to lie?’ I'll do neither, and so I gave evidence under oath, as was expected of me, and I think we have rule of law in this country for a very good reason. I think what's really concerning, though, is that there were reports earlier this week that a lot of these One Nation-associated pages are actually originating out of Indonesia. Now, I'm not saying that there are Indonesians behind those pages, but only recently the ASIO Director General, at his annual threat assessment, mentioned state actors conducting psychological operations online to divide countries, and this is something that we need to think about. I want to be very clear, though, I'm not talking about One Nation voters who have legitimate concerns—they are voting or intending to vote for One Nation for legitimate reasons, but there are nefarious activities in the background. We don't know who is running them, but I think it definitely deserves attention, and people should be very, very critical and judicious of the information that they receive online.
 
ANDREW BOLT: I might just say again what I've mentioned a number of times in print and on air. Your evidence was not even highly consequential. You gave corroborative evidence, evidence from Ben Roberts-Smith's own fellow soldiers in the field is really what hurt him in that defamation case. Now, obviously, the criminal charges will be decided under a higher burden of proof, and he says he's innocent, so we shall see what happens there.
 
ANDREW HASTIE: That's right. I was just going to add: I was cross-examined for two days in the box, not by Nine, so my evidence, as you said, is very small. I'm not central to this, but I'm public, unlike everyone else who was anonymised for the case, which is why I think people have fixated on it.
 
ANDREW BOLT: Well, I think there's another reason, Andrew. And I'll say why I think this has been so damn sinister, and why I really think people should stand up and reject what's going on and stand by you. Is this, I think it is in effect, if not deliberate, to intimidate you, but more importantly, to intimidate other soldiers thinking of giving evidence in the criminal case, it's an intimidation of witnesses, and it's got to stop. I think it's disgusting. Is that how you see it?
 
ANDREW HASTIE: I do. I believe in the rule of law. I believe in a fair trial, and Ben Roberts-Smith deserves a fair trial, which means that no one should be trying to influence or pervert the course of justice.
 
ANDREW BOLT: What effect has all this had on your family?
 
ANDREW HASTIE: My wife, Ruth, understands what's happening, and obviously I spend a lot of time away from my wife and my three young children. They're obviously not on social media, and we've reduced our presence on social media for obvious reasons, but I think the one good thing about our country is that our politics has always been non-violent. We haven't had to have security around our politicians, and it's very sinister what has happened, and I'm grateful that the Home Affairs Minister, Tony Burke—who I don't agree with on a lot—but he understands that security is important, and that's why I was concerned when he called me up and said that I'd been identified for additional security measures at my family home and also at my office for my staff.
 
ANDREW BOLT: Well, good on Tony Burke for that. Columnist Niki Savva today wrote something curious in The Sydney Morning Herald after, it seems, talking to you that you were set to abandon the Liberal Party, if it abandoned you in this case, that doesn't seem right to me. I mean, where would you even go? But what is the truth of this?
 
ANDREW HASTIE: I intend to run for the seat of Canning at the next election. I intend to contest the seat for the Liberal Party. I'm very proud to be a member of the Liberal Party. We have eighty-two years of political tradition, a great party founded by Robert Menzies. But I do think the deeper logic here is that those who are suggesting that somehow we should just hand over the keys to One Nation, or that we would enter into a formal coalition with One Nation, I think that is wrong, and I'm not sure I'd be welcome in such a party, anyhow. I'm firmly in the Liberal Party. That's where I want to form the next centre-right government, and that's who I'll be contesting with.
 
ANDREW BOLT: Now, as you have noted in the past, we are threatened by the Chinese military superpower. Now, how could we defend ourselves against that? So, as a former soldier and a defender of Ukraine, you, I'm sure, would have been fascinated, Andrew Hastie, by an astonishing study by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies—just come out, saying Ukraine has managed now to kill four hundred and fifty thousand Russian soldiers, an incredible amount. That's from the army that invaded Ukraine four years ago, and Ukraine is now killing or wounding eight Russian soldiers for every one Ukrainian. What should Australia's Defence Force learn from Ukraine, which is a country that is now mauling another military superpower?
 
ANDREW HASTIE: I think there's lessons not just for the Defence Force, but for all of Australia. And number one is that any country that wants to defend its territory must have the will to fight. And I think what we saw from the Ukrainians was a will to fight. They had high morale, they wanted to defend their country, and they stood their ground. The second important component was combat power. They were able to defeat the Russians in a conventional sense, in those initial first days of conflict—or not so much defeat but defend successfully at key points. The third thing is advanced manufacturing. You have to have an industrial base to be able to sustain yourself, and the Ukrainians have a decent industrial base. We don't. We're deindustrialising under Net Zero. And the final point I would make, Andrew, is that the Ukrainians have demonstrated incredible innovation and adaptability on the battlefield. They are constantly innovating, adapting their style of warfare to overcome and defeat the Russians, and that's why they've been successful. All important lessons for Australia.
 
ANDREW BOLT: I'll have more on that with the Ukrainian ambassador after the break, Andrew Hastie. Thank you so much for your time.
 
ANDREW HASTIE: Thank you, Andrew. A pleasure.
 
[ENDS]

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