Renegade Liberal Andrew Hastie has ruled out abandoning the Coalition and insists he has given his leader “clear air” since resigning from the front bench.
The West Australian MP has been mostly silent after walking away from his position as opposition home affairs spokesman because of a dispute over immigration and climate policy. The former SAS soldier said he had made a deliberate decision not to make any media appearances since walking away from the shadow ministry.
Liberal MP Andrew Hastie. Dominic Lorrimer
“I haven’t done any interviews, I haven’t done any press, and I’ve given Sussan (Ley) clear air,” he told Sydney radio 2GB on Thursday.
Asked if he was considering following former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce, and walking away from the Coalition, Hastie was firm.
“I’m not switching,” he said. “I wouldn’t be elected if it wasn’t for the Liberal Party.”
Hastie urged Joyce to remain with the opposition and said speculation about his colleague’s move to Pauline Hanson’s One Nation was “unhelpful to our cause right now.”
Following the prime minister’s White House visit earlier in the week, Hastie also backed Australia’s US ambassador Kevin Rudd, despite some Coalition members calling for him to be sacked.
“Kevin Rudd copped it on the chin for the country,” he said.
Hastie praised Rudd for securing a multibillion dollar critical minerals deal with the United States and dismissed Trump’s attack as “trolling.”
“This guy does reality television,” he said. “And trolling the Australian ambassador was good TV.”
