Hastie Says Centre-Right Liberals Adopted Too Many Policies From the Left

PERTH, Australia—Shadow spokesman for sovereign capability Andrew Hastie has conceded that Australia’s centre-right Liberal Party has adopted too many policies from the left.

“The reason that the centre-right is at war with itself at the moment is because we have adopted elements … of the centre-left political vision,” Hastie said in his first official appearance at a Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), dubbed “Reset the West,” on March 6.

The deputy leader of the House of Representatives Hastie noted that his party had adopted several policies similar to Labor in areas like the COVID-19 pandemic and net zero.

Hastie, who represents the electorate of Canning south of Perth in Western Australia, was first elected in a 2015 by-election.

He is a former Australian army officer who served in the Special Air Service Regiment, before moving into politics with a focus on defence, and national security.

Earlier in the year, there was speculation that Hastie might challenge former leader Sussan Ley for the party leadership, but this was ruled out by Hastie himself after he found insufficient support.

Current leader Angus Taylor later challenged, taking on the role with Hastie’s support.

Infiltration by the Political Left, Centralisation of Economic Power

In what he called his “big idea for the night,” Hastie claimed the political left had infiltrated politics, centralised economic power in the hands of a governing elite that was out of touch with everyday Australians.

“It is true that a significant amount of economic and financial power is vested in the hands of a few Australians at the Reserve Bank, and many regular Australians feel powerless against the massive decisions made by those policy experts,” Hastie said.

Hastie warned Australia has endured 17 years of expansionary monetary policy, during which the money supply has grown by more than 300 percent since the global financial crisis in 2009—contributing to inflation.

He described this era as an “economic conjuring,” in which money was created out of thin air through quantitative easing—where the central bank purchases government bonds—while masking the reality of national debt.

He said prolonged low interest rates and easy credit fueled a housing boom that many Australians, particularly younger buyers, missed out on, locking them out of the property market.

The same cheap credit environment, he added, enabled higher government spending, disproportionately benefiting those able to access it while leaving others behind.

Labor, Liberal Shared Similar Policies on COVID

Hastie also highlighted his belief that many Australians were upset with how the government had handled the COVID-19 pandemic.

“That’s why we see so much suspicion, residual anger, and resentment of politicians and policy experts. Regular Australians live the consequences of those decisions,” Hastie said.

“During the pandemic, jobs were taken from people, families were separated, and medical care was denied to people because of state boundaries.”

During the pandemic, both Labor and Liberal held similar stances on many issues, such as vaccine roll-outs, with both insisting compulsory vaccination was essential for reopening the nation.

“Governments across the country, both Liberal and Labor, vested great power into the hands of unelected health officials who advocated for social distancing, lockdowns, and vaccine mandates,” Hastie said.

Liberals Should Never Have Adopted Net Zero: Hastie

Hastie’s final topic was net zero—a passion topic for the federal MP.

He was critical of the Liberal Party adopting net zero targets, before ultimately deciding against them.

“That was a mistake, and we should never have caved to international pressure on [adopting net zero],” he said.

“That’s why we’re out of net zero. We made that call as a Liberal Party room last year, and Australian energy security is now our number one priority.”

Hastie criticised Labor’s policy of subsidising the electric vehicle (EV) industry—where 77.5 percent of all new battery EV sales in Australia last year were linked back to China.

“We’re going to be spending more money subsidising foreign car makers than we ever did our own car industry,” he said.

Hastie’s pitch to the conservative conference comes as the Liberal Party loses support to the conservative-leaning One Nation across multiple polls, in some cases, even leading Labor and Liberal in terms of primary support.

Pollster Antony Green has listed 25 electorates where One Nation has performed well historically, including Hastie’s seat of Canning.

“If come the next election One Nation polls 25 percent, it will be sweeping up seats all across rural and regional Australia. And most of those seats are held by the National and Liberal Parties,” Green wrote on Feb. 2.