Andrew Hastie Keen to Lead Liberal Party but Says Timing Is Everything

Coalition frontbencher Andrew Hastie has reaffirmed his hopes to lead the Liberal Party in the future.

“I have said I am interested in leading the Liberal Party, but around May, I made it very clear that my young family, my wife comes first, and also my constituency,” he said on Sky News Australia.

Hastie is currently the Opposition’s spokesman for Home Affairs and has represented the seat of Canning in Western Australia (WA) since 2015.

“So I am just doing what I can to serve my constituency here in Canning. I am obviously enjoying this role of Home Affairs, and I’ll keep doing that, that’s my job,” Hastie said.

“But I am not going to lie to you and say I don’t have any ambitions to lead, of course I do, but timing in politics is everything. And right now, Sussan Ley is our leader and we are doing everything we can to build a platform to win the next election.”

Hastie previously revealed his ambitions to lead just days after Sussan Ley became the first woman chosen to lead the Liberal Party.

At the time, Hastie said it would be “foolish” to say he did not have the desire to lead.

However, he added, “Leadership can’t be confined to just the position. We’ve also got to lead in the battle of ideas as well. I think that’s where I want to make a contribution.”

Prior to entering politics, Hastie was captain of the elite Special Air Service Regiment and served in Afghanistan and the Middle East.

Point of Difference on Net Zero

Hastie also spoke openly about net zero policy and climate change, marking a point of difference to Ley, who has yet to state her position on net zero policy following the election and is waiting on the Coalition to conduct a review.

Asked if he thought climate change was real, Hastie said, “Of course, climate change has been occurring through history.”

However, Hastie pointed to the real issue being a question of how much Australia is changing the climate, given the country produces 1.1 percent of the world’s emissions, lower than many others.

“We export 25 percent of the world’s coal, we export 20 percent of the world’s liquified natural gas, to the biggest emitters like China, India, Japan and other countries. In the Asia Pacific region alone, the uptake of fossil fuels is increasing as it did last year,” he said.

Hastie highlighted the massive cost of net zero to Australians.

“Should we transfer our heavy industry, Australian jobs offshore? Should we demand that the Australian people pay more for their power bills? Should we actually orchestrate a massive transfer of wealth through our tax system so that Australians are paying more for their power? And I think it’s fundamentally unjust and hypocritical and that’s why I have called out Labor on this,” he said.

Hastie recently supported a motion at the WA Liberal State Council to abandon net zero.

Within the Coalition, Alex Antic, Matt Canavan, and Barnaby Joyce are among members who have openly called for net zero to be dumped since the election.

The Labor Party, on the other hand, has criticised the Coalition for its position on net zero.

Labor MP Josh Burns recently said in Parliament that the Liberal Party were “completely and utterly obsessed with scrapping net zero.”

Burns argued that net zero policy would help businesses.

“The Liberal Party and the National Party, it seems, aren’t willing to listen to businesses and aren’t willing to listen to the economic truth of the fact that there is huge opportunity in transitioning towards renewables and transitioning towards net zero,” Burns said in parliament on July 28 (pdf).

Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen also expressed surprise on the same day that Joyce had pre-empted the Liberal Party’s review of net zero by introducing a private member’s bill to repeal net zero.