Andrew Hastie says he supports Sussan Ley and anyone suggesting otherwise is \u201cbeing mischievous\u201d after his latest policy intervention further fuelled speculation of a leadership tilt.<\/p>\n
The shadow home affairs minister\u2019s personal crusades on abandoning net zero by 2050, \u201cAustralia-first\u201d manufacturing and cutting net overseas migration have caused ructions inside the party and prompted speculation he is laying the groundwork to fulfil a long-held ambition of leading the party.<\/p>\n
The West Australian MP sought to hose down the prospects of a challenge on Thursday, telling 2GB that he supported Ley and \u201canyone who is speculating otherwise is being mischievous\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a team player, I\u2019m just being a little bolder in some of the policy positions that I think we should adopt. There\u2019s work to be done, but these are pretty straightforward, principled positions which I think a lot of people are looking for us to adopt,\u201d Hastie said.<\/p>\n
Senior Liberal sources told Guardian Australia that Ley\u2019s leadership was safe for now, with only a small rump of hardline rightwingers agitating behind the scenes.<\/p>\n
In the latest in a series of provocative policy statements, Hastie warned on Wednesday that the Liberal party could \u201cdie\u201d <\/a>as a political movement if it did not commit to cut overseas migration levels, which he blamed for making Australians \u201cfeel like strangers in our own home\u201d.<\/p>\n The social media post noted net overseas migration was 446,000 in 2023-24 but did not mention it had fallen from a peak of almost 556,000 in the year to September 2023.<\/p>\n Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n Treasury assumes<\/a> net migration will fall to 262,000 this financial year and then to 225,000 in 2026-27.<\/p>\n The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, said Hastie needed to \u201cdecide whether he\u2019s happy with modern Australia or not\u201d as he challenged him to detail what specific visa programs a Coalition<\/a> government would cut to further reduce migration levels.<\/p>\n \u201cIf he wants to make cuts further, he needs to say where. Does he want to make additional cuts to skilled migration? If that\u2019s what he wants to do, can he nominate which aged care centres he believes should close? Because without immigration, we don\u2019t keep them open,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Immigration was a major Coalition priority under former leader Peter Dutton, who promised dramatic cuts to permanent migration<\/a> and net overseas migration after attempting to link the post-pandemic influx of people to housing supply and affordability.<\/p>\n While the migration policy under Ley has yet to be settled, the new shadow immigration minister, Paul Scarr<\/a>, has promised a more empathetic tone when talking about migrants.<\/p>\n Scarr declined to defend Hastie\u2019s views on immigration but supported his right to weigh in as shadow home affairs minister during an at-time tense interview on ABC Melbourne.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Breaking News Australia<\/p>\n Get the most important news as it breaks<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Asked if he was comfortable with Hastie\u2019s \u201cstrangers in our home\u201d comment, the Queensland senator sidestepped the question.<\/p>\n \u201cMy preference is to come back to the factual matters, the realities around issues in relation to our housing supply, the need for long-term planning and the need for the government to be transparent with the Australian people,\u201d Scarr said.<\/p>\n