Federal MP Andrew Hastie has moved to the opposition back bench so he can continue to attack and undermine Liberal Party and Coalition leader Sussan Ley without the limitation of being a Shadow Minister.
Hastie wasn’t hiding the fact that he was undermining Sussan Ley’s leadership over the last couple of weeks with his public statements and I published an article on the 28th of September 2025 titled “Billionaire Gina Rinehart makes takeover bid for the Liberal Party via Andrew Hastie – LibSpill by Christmas?” detailing Hastie’s game plan.
Then on Tuesday (30/9/25) Sussan Ley made a move to try and put Andrew Hastie in his place and sent letters to members of her frontbench.
The SMH published an article (30/9/25) titled “Ley sets KPIs for fractious frontbench” which starts off:
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has laid down the law to her frontbenchers, imposing key performance indicators to overcome the policy failures that plagued Peter Dutton’s election campaign.
Under pressure to maintain internal discipline, Ley has fired off what are known as charter letters to shadow ministers outlining minimum standards and priority policy areas.
Ley’s office wrote to frontbenchers on Tuesday to inform them about a letter that “will be in your boss’s inbox”, according to an email obtained by this masthead sent a day after she was peppered with questions about whether her leadership was under threat from MP Andrew Hastie. (Click here to read more)
The Guardian also reported:
Senior Liberal sources confirmed the letters, first reported by the Nine newspapers, also contained a more general call for discipline and “respect for colleagues’ portfolios”, which frontbenchers interpreted as an appeal to avoid policy freelancing after the disruption of Andrew Hastie’s interventions on net zero, local car-making and immigration.
Guardian Australia revealed in July that Ley intended to issue the KPIs in an attempt to improve the opposition’s policymaking process.
It is standard practice for prime ministers to issue charter letters to their ministers but it is rare for opposition leaders to do. (Click here to read more)
While the letters went out to all the opposition frontbenchers, the timing shows it was clearly in response to Andrew Hastie and his undermining of Sussan Ley’s leadership over the last week or so.
Reports say that as soon as the letter hit the inboxes on Tuesday Andrew Hastie went into radio silence mode as reported by the SMH:
Andrew Hastie’s colleagues had been trying to reach him for days.
The former SAS captain has always been a lone wolf in a Liberal party room full of former staffers, apparatchiks and business people. But he has become particularly dislocated from the party’s centre of gravity in recent months as he’s spent time with his family in Perth post-election.
This week it went to a new level. Calls, texts – nothing. Something was up.
“It was just radio silence for days,” one of his close colleagues said. (Click here to read more)
Then on Friday Andrew Hastie announced his resignation as Shadow Minister for Home Affairs. The Guardian reported (3/10/25):
Hastie blamed his resignation on a charter letter from Ley, outlining her expectations of him as a member of the opposition frontbench, and stating he would not be involved in formulation of immigration policy.
“The leader has made it clear that the shadow home affairs minister won’t lead the Coalition’s response to immigration matters or develop the Coalition’s immigration strategy,” Hastie said in a statement.
“On this basis, I made the decision that I was not able to continue in this role and remain silent on immigration.
“It is a well established standard in the Westminster system that, if a member of the shadow cabinet is unwilling to live by the convention of solidarity, they must depart to the backbench.” (Click here to read more)
The federal Liberal Party leadership battle is like competing to be Captain of Titanic. It’s already sunk, and there isn’t much left.
Andrew Hastie resigned as a shadow minister so he could continue his leadership challenge, not for any other reason.
The below video is Andrew Hastie’s rumoured running mate Senator Jacinta Price bowing to her billionaire bosses Gina Rinehart and Lachlan Murdoch:
What the last week or so has shown is that while Sussan Ley has no chance of ever becoming Prime Minister, she is still a better option as Liberal Party leader than Andrew Hastie.
Andrew Hastie is 43 years old, which is on the young side for politicians, and he would have been better off letting Sussan Ley, Angus Taylor and others fight over the leadership for the next 3 or 4 years and then have a run at the leadership, when the others have failed.
Andrew Hastie having his leadership run now means he will expose himself to a bruising battle of which there will be no winners, at least long-term.
While Andrew Hastie is a good communicator, what he is saying won’t be a big vote winner, either inside his party or with voters. The reason is because what Hastie says is just propaganda for Gina Rinehart, Rupert Murdoch and others, which doesn’t cut it.
There are enough Liberal Party MPs in federal parliament who know if Andrew Hastie was to become leader then the takeover by Gina Rinehart would be complete and they would get the same, if not worse result, than the 2025 federal election.
At some stage soon Andrew Hastie, along with Senator Jacinta Price and likely a few other Liberal MPs and/or National Party MPs, will start attacking Sussan Ley and her leadership and it is battle that could last years with the only winner being the Labor Party.
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Categories: Andrew Hastie, Gina Rinehart, Sussan Ley
If he attacks net zero and high immigration levels, he will do well.
Get ready for Trumpian toxic policies and divisiveness.
The campaign of lies and misinformation has already started.
She is hopeless. Need a leader. Angus Taylor would be good. Need Nuclear power and lower immigration levels NOW
Been to a hospital or aged person’s home lately Ann? You should go and count the obvious immigrants. Who is going to do those jobs? Don’t say train locals, firstly that takes years you you want to stop immigration NOW, and secondly, unemployment is low, we don’t have spare people to train.
Nonsense on Stilts, as Jeremy Bentham would have called it!
Hastie, the subversive and extremely divisive Rhinehart billionaire cartels latest desperate recruit, as head of the renewables disinformation, misinformation and blatant lies, extreme right LNP faction. Basically just another jockey for Rhineharts anti-renewables horserace. They’re a dime a dozen to Rhinehart!
Hastie, another branch stacked religious fundamentalist factional that couldn’t get preselection in Victoria and had to be branch stacked by Abbott across the country to WA. About to throw himself into the LNP RWNJ faction woodchipper. When will these LNP fundamentalist faction clowns realise that fighting each other, along with Hanson, Palmer and the assorted Cooker anti vaccination conspiracy crazies, for the 19% RWNJ vote is a path to political oblivion?
Basically, Hastie and the other RWNJ LNP extremist faction are resisting the Ley LNP moderates trying to gain back the middle ground votes with some policies, even if they are just pretend policies and not just using the same old irrelevant LNP/Media culture war nonsense, just so they can keep some of the 19% “Crazies” moving to Hanson?
Every vote Hastie’s faction attempts to keep from Hanson, Palmer and the other anti-renewable, immigration extremists, is another 10 moderate votes lost, thats it, in a nut shell. Everyone knows it, even Hastie’s fundamentalist faction, but they just cannot help themselves, because its all about the Billionaire coal mining cartel bucks, that will keep the party solvent and from the inevitable political oblivion. Ley and Hastie’s Liberal party has 18 seats. Hastie may just halve that number next election with this completely irrelevant contrived anti-renewable immigrations to blame for everything, coal mining billionaire cartel bankrolled nonsense!
The best way to stop Hanson is for the LNP, is to simply stop giving Hanson preference votes. Every seat Hanson has, was only gained by stupid LNP preference deals.
Under the Abbott Government with Scott Morrison as Minister for Immigration was when the reopening of the 457 visa loophole occurred, allowing employers, employment agencies and labour hire companies, their mates, to import unlimited numbers of guest workers.
In that change there were 651 occupations shown as having a local skills shortage, when there were in fact no skill shortages.
Morrison as Minister from 18 September 2013– 23 December 2014 also created dozens of new work visa categories, including for specific industries. viz: entertainment industry, maritime crews et al. All to undercut and displace Australian workers who were already employed in such positions
Together, Morrison who was replaced in a cabinet reshuffle by Dutton the Minister from 23 December 2014– 20 December 2017, approved over 700,000 temporary visas in the 2014/15 period
This on top of an annual permanent immigration intake of 190,000 people per year.
Abbott and thenMorrison then Dutton can all be seen as successors to John Howard’s record population policies.
Do I detect the grubby fingers of Tony Abbott all over this? Hastie is doing exactly what Abbott did to Turnbull: from the backbench, launch a sustained attack of criticism and back-stabbing until the victim is left with no choice but to resign. Stay tuned for Hastie’s now-relentless appearances on SKY, 2GB, SevenWest Media etc, all of it bagging Ley either directly or in a roundabout way.
Andrew Hastie and Tony Abbott are both on the ARC advisory board along with John Howard, John Anderson, Amanda Stoker, Jacinta Price under the high priest of tyranny, Jordan Peterson
Does Australia need yet another right- wing, God-bothering political leader ? The ones we have had did enough damage to last a lifetime
What he claims on net zero and immigration fits the transnational Anglo-Euro narratives and ideology of fossil fueled Atlas Koch on former, and anti-immigrant Tanton Network* on the latter (which allegedly had informed Fox News directly, see Media Matters).
No coincidence, especially on same talking points being repeated by Farage (allegedly wooed by Steve Bannon pre Brexit), many around Trump’s regime and Danube Institute in Hungary (where Abbott and advisor hang out); latter is partnered with Koch’s Heritage (anti-Ukraine & anti-EU) and with Tanton’s mob developed Project 2025.
Whiff of fossil fuels, Big Tech, oligarch donors, MAGA white Christian nationalism, ‘segregation economics’ and eugenics, Russia too, see Brexit and Trump.
*The deceased white nationalist and formerly with fossil fuel greenwash & astroturf ZPG Zero Population Growth, John ‘passive eugenics’ Tanton admired the white Australia policy, visited (’80s) and was hosted by Sustainable Population Australia (see Atlas Koch AIP’s Online Opinion a decade ago, confirmed by then head of SPA in comments).
Tanton was described by former Nancy Reagan speech writer Linda Chavez as ‘the most influential unknown man in America’ and SPLC as ‘the architect of the modern anti-immigration movement’, personified by Miller, Bannon, Farage, Musk et al.
It’s concerning to see political messaging that leans heavily on alarmist rhetoric about immigration and energy policy. Australia faces real challenges in workforce availability, healthcare, and aged care, and these cannot be solved by simply halting immigration. A pragmatic approach should consider the skills and contributions of newcomers, as well as the long-term needs of our economy.
At the same time, we need leaders who focus on practical solutions rather than engaging in factional battles or stoking divisions for ideological gain. Policies should be guided by evidence, not by narrow partisan agendas or external influences. Australians deserve leadership that prioritizes the public good, encourages innovation in energy and infrastructure, and seeks unity rather than discord.
In short, a mature, balanced, and forward-looking approach to governance is what will best serve the country, rather than repeated reliance on polarising talking points or extreme policy proposals.
It is important to note that Andrew Hastie’s actions, public statements, past parliamentary votes, and associations suggest a pattern of divisive rhetoric and alignment with narrow ideological interests. His record demonstrates that his skills and judgment fall far short of what is required of a national leader, let alone the prime minister of our country. Australians should be cautious of leadership that prioritises factional agendas over the broad national interest.
Fred, while agreeing with the main thrust of your post, I feel you have avoided or missed the real point. Australasia is devoid of thinking politicians, what we have is a group of people who see politics as a cosy lifestyle.
A country with a large land mass and a small population spending $millions on submarines we may never get, while people sleep on park benches tells you what?
When we have increased migration of people who have an installed hatred of other migrants (Judaism and Moslems) and no real understanding of our country.
When we are governed by one of two political parties, both subservient to the American dollar and it’s government, we as a nation are stuffed.