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Andrew Hastie has warned Barnaby Joyce that his assault on One Nation was just beginning, adding that he pitied the former deputy prime minister for having to clean up after party leader Pauline Hanson.
The Liberal frontbencher launched a scathing attack on Hanson last week after being labelled a traitor in her cartoon, Please Explain, for his testimony in accused war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith’s failed defamation action against this masthead. Hastie branded Hanson a “lying coward” after she denied using the term.
Hanson dug in and insisted it was just satire, splitting with her star recruit Joyce, who apologised to Hastie. The “slur” attracted criticism from MPs across the political spectrum, as well as the RSL. One Nation’s own WA leader distanced himself from the accusation.
Hanson refused to scrub the cartoon from her social media, but quietly unpinned it from the top of her X feed over the weekend.
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Hastie, who is fighting to keep his seat at the next election and has had to ramp up his personal security following threats from supporters of Roberts-Smith, said on Sunday that his attack on One Nation was not over.
“As I said to Barnaby in text, I will continue. Consider last week a demonstration. They haven’t seen anything yet. I’ll go all the way with One Nation if they want,” Hastie told News24. “Weakness is provocative … these guys thought I was weak.”
Hastie suggested Joyce and One Nation’s latest federal recruit, Farrer MP David Farley, had buyer’s remorse.
“I’ll say this about Barnaby Joyce. I feel sorry for the bloke,” he said. “He left a party that made him deputy prime minister twice to jump in with this rabble. There’s no principles; they’re all over the shop, and he’s out there every week cleaning up after them.”
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Hastie said he had always been respectful of Hanson and had previously built a good relationship with her.
“And then she came for me, and I started to see, ‘OK, this is not the person I thought she was’,” he said. “Now she’s my political opponent, and she started a fight, and I intend to win it.”
Hastie accused Hanson of politicising the Roberts-Smith case, but said public pressure would not sway him from his convictions.
He pointed to a view from some in the community that Australian soldiers should be given free rein while serving their country overseas because “they’re Aussie diggers, they’re our guys”. He said that while doorknocking in his electorate, angry constituents had said they were OK with murder in war, with one person telling him they were OK with rape in war.
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“I’ve got to tell you, I’m not happy with that at all,” Hastie said.
Hastie also did not back down from his opposition to paid parental leave being afforded to those who needed a late-term abortion. His suggestion last year that the changes in Baby Priya’s Bill could have “unintended consequences” was roundly criticised as a suggestion that women might have abortions to claim extra leave.
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Hastie said he had been counselled by “eminent Australians” and “former Labor ministers outside the Parliament” over the remarks, and took that feedback seriously.
“I don’t regret them [the comments], but I’m constantly learning in this game about how to better advocate in such a way that is winsome and sensitive to others,” he said. “But my fundamental position on the issue of abortion is unchanged. I’m pro-life, and I’m not going to suddenly back down to win political points from people.”
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Hastie dismissed Hanson’s accusation that he was fighting her to bolster his leadership prospects as “ridiculous”.
“Angus Taylor is the leader. I’ve supported him. Judge me by my actions, and I’ve shown loyalty to Angus since he became leader.”
After being played a clip of himself from last year in which he said he had leadership aspirations, Hastie said he had accepted he did not have the numbers in the coup against former leader Sussan Ley in February.
He said the Coalition could not afford to be divided, but conceded all MPs fancied themselves as a potential leader. “I reckon every single person in the parliament has a baton in their knapsack. Some have it buried beneath their lunchbox. Some have it closer to the top.”
He said his baton was “somewhere in there”.
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Brittany Busch is a federal politics reporter for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.AdvertisementAdvertisement