Canberra must respond to Australians\u2019 concerns and \u201cfix the system\u201d or watch \u201cpeople like Pauline Hanson\u201d tear it down amid collapsing global norms, senior Liberal MP Andrew Hastie says.<\/p>\n
Mr Hastie, widely viewed as a future Liberal Party leader, returned to the opposition frontbench in February as part of Angus Taylor\u2019s shadow cabinet.<\/p>\n
His new industry portfolio has put the special forces veteran on the front lines of issues driving discontent, from calls for wholesale tax reform to safeguarding key industries vital to Australia\u2019s sovereignty.<\/p>\n
He said on Sunday major reforms were needed, including a possible windfall tax on gas exporters benefiting from soaring gas prices.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think multinationals and big business in this country have lost their social licence,\u201d Mr Hastie told ABC\u2019s Insiders.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve made no effort to recover it and a lot of Australians feel like the system is rigged against them.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that it was part of broader disenfranchisement in which Australians \u201cdon\u2019t see reward for their efforts\u201d, including as younger generations try securing a foothold on the property ladder.<\/p>\n
Noting the Coalition was \u201csmashed\u201d at the 2022 and 2025 federal elections, Mr Hastie warned its \u201cprimary vote is being cannibalised from both the right and the left\u201d and that \u201cbeing open-minded is important\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the bigger geopolitical frame here and the macro-economic frame here is that we\u2019re about to potentially slide into a recession,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the things we\u2019ve got going for us is our abundance of gas.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs introducing a new tax right at this time going to help our situation?<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore February 28, this conversation looked very different. We are in a different period now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018The world order has collapsed\u2019<\/p>\n
He said the conversation \u201clooked very different\u201d before the joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran late last month.<\/p>\n
Asked if he was also open to negative gearing and capital gains tax reform, Mr Hastie would not say.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a new era. The world order has collapsed in the last couple of years. We\u2019re experiencing a lot of economic pain. Inflation is very sticky,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve mentioned all the factors that people feel and live every day.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just think we need to overhaul the whole system. So we either fix the system or it\u2019s torn down by people like Pauline Hanson.\u201d<\/p>\n
He went on to say there was no point being constrained by ideology while searching for solutions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI actually want to win and deliver a centre-right government for this country, and the best way to beat Labor is to start listening to people and meeting \u2026 their concerns head on, rather than reactively slapping them down,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy working assumption now is that One Nation wants to supplant us as the major party on the centre-right.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are doing everything they can to destroy our credibility.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd having said that \u2026 a lot of people who\u2019ve parked their vote with One Nation now have very legitimate concerns around energy, around immigration, around housing, around \u2026 a rigged economic system, and we need to be responsive and respectful to those people.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut let\u2019s not pretend that One Nation are out to form a coalition or work with us.\u201d<\/p>\n
The comments came as One Nation looked likely to take up to four traditionally safe Liberal seats in South Australia.<\/p>\n
Polls heading into last week\u2019s state election predicted One Nation would score big at the ballot box, with a Newspoll suggesting the party\u2019s surge paired with Labor\u2019s gains could wipe out the Liberals.<\/p>\n
As of Sunday morning, the Liberal Party was set to hang on to its status as opposition by one seat.<\/p>\n
The vote has broadly been seen as a test of One Nation\u2019s ability to turn its poll power into votes, with analysts saying the outcome should serve as an indicator to future state and federal contests.<\/p>\n
One Nation will have a chance to prove itself at the federal level in the upcoming Farrer by-election scheduled for May 9.<\/p>\n
It has also promised a big showing at the Victorian state election at the end of the year.<\/p>\n
Read related topics:One Nation<\/a>Pauline Hanson<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canberra must respond to Australians\u2019 concerns and \u201cfix the system\u201d or watch \u201cpeople like Pauline Hanson\u201d tear it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":571408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[2095,155074,2324,1724,64,63,689,271129,36974,280564,44703,447,280566,134,280562,280574,32647,280575,280570,280576,35153,280569,280568,5575,280571,280572,10940,673,3354,180257,2041,2067,677,60504,280565,14754,280573,280567,26025,127359,1124,12540,280563,9804,670,2614,198155],"class_list":["post-571407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-america","tag-angus-taylor","tag-anthony-albanese","tag-asia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-election","tag-australian-politics","tag-ballot-box","tag-capital-gains-tax","tag-celebrities","tag-concerns-head","tag-entertainment","tag-federal-contests","tag-federal-elections","tag-fuel-costs","tag-fuel-supply-measures","tag-gains-tax-reform","tag-gas-exporters","tag-gas-prices","tag-generations-try","tag-industry-portfolio","tag-iran","tag-launching-missiles","tag-liberal-mp-andrew-hastie","tag-liberal-party","tag-new-south-wales","tag-news-headlines","tag-newswire-politics","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-oceania","tag-one-nation","tag-opposition-frontbencher","tag-pauline-hanson","tag-polls-heading","tag-possible-windfall-tax","tag-property-ladder","tag-shadow-cabinet","tag-south-australia","tag-southern-asia","tag-special-forces-veteran","tag-state-election","tag-sydney","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-world-order"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=571407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}