{"id":888262,"date":"2026-09-11T15:10:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T15:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/888262\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T15:10:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T15:10:15","slug":"andrew-hastie-knew-taking-on-pauline-hanson-would-cost-him-liberals-are-divided-over-the-price-of-following-suit-andrew-hastie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/888262\/","title":{"rendered":"Andrew Hastie knew taking on Pauline Hanson would cost him. Liberals are divided over the price of following suit | Andrew Hastie"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andrew Hastie knew his attacks on Pauline Hanson<\/a> this week would come at a cost.<\/p>\n

He was already under siege. One Nation<\/a> had been taking potshots at him for months, and a section of the Western Australian media was giving them an outlet to do so.<\/p>\n

The former SAS captain\u2019s intent was clear from mid-June, when he told his colleagues he\u2019d \u201crather get taken out in a box than bend the knee to One Nation\u201d.<\/p>\n

Then came an accusation contained in a One Nation cartoon \u2013 shared by Hanson herself \u2013 that he betrayed his country by giving evidence against Victoria Cross-winner Ben Roberts-Smith in a failed defamation trial<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Andrew Hastie leaves the federal court in 2022 after giving evidence against Ben Roberts-Smith. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi\/AAP<\/p>\n

When Hastie went hard at Hanson over the \u201ctraitor\u201d claims, the Western Australian MP did so knowing sections of his largely conservative support base could abandon him \u2013 and that some of his own colleagues wouldn\u2019t be prepared to pay that price.<\/p>\n

\u201cAndrew knows there are some colleagues that could not support him because they don\u2019t want to be on the wrong side of what they see as a popular cause: Ben Roberts-Smith,\u201d says one senior Liberal, who is close to Hastie but requested anonymity to speak freely.<\/p>\n

But former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Turnbull tells Guardian Australia that Hastie \u201cshould be entitled to absolute 100% solidarity from his team\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hastie\u2019s supporters acknowledge his personal pushback against smears from One Nation could take some paint off his leadership ambitions \u2013 not from within the party room, but within a membership base that doesn\u2019t like personal attacks on Hanson and believe Roberts-Smith has been treated unfairly.<\/p>\n

Multiple Liberal sources say this strategic assessment was evident in statements from his party leader, Angus Taylor, who called on Hanson to remove a One Nation cartoon attacking Hastie but declined to personally attack her.<\/p>\n

The federal party\u2019s president \u2013 former prime minister Tony Abbott, who has expressed sympathy and support for Roberts-Smith \u2013 said it would be \u201cright\u201d for One Nation to remove the video, but nothing more.<\/p>\n

It was stark contrast to an emotional defence of Hastie from crossbench senator Jacqui Lambie<\/a>, herself an army veteran, who accused Hanson of being an \u201cangry little woman\u201d and a \u201cbloody coward\u201d for not apologising or taking down the video.<\/p>\n

While the vast majority of Liberal MPs have rallied behind Hastie, party insiders concede this week has highlighted a small but significant divide about the treatment of Roberts-Smith.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are different views within the party,\u201d says another senior Liberal source. \u201cOn this issue, there is no consensus.\u201d<\/p>\n

They also say a messy week has revealed a party grappling with how best to counter One Nation\u2019s surge in the polls.<\/p>\n

While some are willing to fight Hanson head-on, or feel they have no other choice, others prefer cautious silence.<\/p>\n

\u2018He deserves 100% solidarity\u2019<\/p>\n

Hastie\u2019s factional allies in parliament believe that if some colleagues didn\u2019t publicly criticise Hanson this week, they never will.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a couple of colleagues, it is a small number, who think we should never criticise Pauline Hanson and One Nation even when they do egregiously stupid and outrageous things,\u201d says the senior source close to Hastie.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey believe they are on our side and that somehow, by never criticising a political rival, their vote will fall and ours will rise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turnbull says this is misguided. He says Hastie has been unfairly targeted for being a reluctant witness in the Roberts-Smith defamation case, where he was compelled to appear by subpoena.<\/p>\n

\u201cA senior member of the Coalition frontbench \u2013 a former SAS officer \u2013 has been accused of treason in cartoons published by One Nation,\u201d Turnbull says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is outrageous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrew Hastie shows a printout of a frame from the One Nation cartoon accusing him of being a traitor. Photograph: Hilary Wardhaugh\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Multiple Liberal sources describe Hastie\u2019s direct rebuke of Hanson as a break from the party\u2019s strategy of not directly attacking her. They fear personal attacks on her \u2013 such as calling her a coward<\/a> \u2013 may unintentionally entrench support among her base by making her look victimised by the political establishment.<\/p>\n

The Nationals leader, Matt Canavan, who tells Guardian Australia that One Nation went \u201ctoo far\u201d in its criticism of Hastie, said he would prefer to keep his criticism of Hanson respectful.<\/p>\n

But he says he won\u2019t shy away from calling her out, as \u201cwe have a duty and obligation to do that\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you are running for office, you\u2019ve got to be subject to scrutiny,\u201d Canavan says.<\/p>\n

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\u2018Enough is enough\u2019<\/p>\n

Andrew Bragg, a moderate Liberal MP, says his factional rival should continue to call out One Nation.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Hastie has] done the right thing to rise about the pathetic, unpatriotic attacks on him,\u201d Bragg says. \u201cHe has contextualised the matter and he should continue being forthright with his views.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jane Hume, another moderate, says Hastie has \u201cshown plenty of patience\u201d but \u201cenough is enough\u201d.<\/p>\n

Not everyone is willing to be drawn into the fight, however.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a couple of colleagues who are less keen on this and if it continues for months and months and months, some might begin to think, this is going too far,\u201d says the senior Liberal close to Hastie.<\/p>\n

Others welcome the fight playing out now.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is obviously better if this particular fight comes to a head now, rather than down the line, closer to the election,\u201d says another senior Liberal.<\/p>\n

The campaign in the west<\/p>\n

Hastie\u2019s supporters also believe sections of the media in Western Australia have been co-opted into a campaign against him, alleging it is ultimately benefiting two high-profile supporters of Roberts-Smith: Gina Rinehart and Kerry Stokes.<\/p>\n

Both Stokes and Rinehart have been long-term supporters of Roberts-Smith who argue he has been treated unfairly by sections of the media and politicians.<\/p>\n

The Stokes family are the largest shareholders in Southern Cross Media, which owns the Seven Network and the West Australian newspapers. In 2015, Stokes hired Roberts-Smith<\/a> to be Seven\u2019s general manager in Queensland.<\/p>\n

About a decade later, his private company bankrolled<\/a> the defamation action against Nine. It was the Nine newspapers that were first to publish allegations in 2018 that Roberts-Smith had committed war crimes.<\/p>\n

There has been an historic rivalry between Seven and Nine. That only increased when Roberts-Smith\u2019s defamation case was dismissed in 2023<\/a> and again on appeal in 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Seven West insiders say this has been a factor in ongoing media coverage of Hastie.<\/p>\n

Gina Rinehart in 2025. Photograph: Hollie Adams\/Reuters<\/p>\n

This week, Hastie complained to his supporters about a front-page article in The Sunday Times newspaper, which carried the headline \u201cI\u2019M CANNING FOR YOU: Hanson\u2019s warning to Hastie after Secret Harbour romp<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

He alleged the article contained \u201cslander from One Nation\u201d \u2013 and then criticised other journalism from the company during a press conference in Canberra.<\/p>\n

Seven West Media were contacted for comment.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Guardian Australia asked a spokesperson for Rinehart about the pressure on Hastie and One Nation\u2019s cartoon.<\/p>\n

The Hancock Prospecting spokesperson referred to Rinehart\u2019s comments in July, which described Roberts-Smith as a \u201cnational hero\u201d and accused Hastie of not supporting him.<\/p>\n

In response to the video, they said: \u201cIt is veterans and Mr Hastie\u2019s own conservative social media followers who use that word (traitor) to describe him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andrew Hastie knew his attacks on Pauline Hanson this week would come at a cost. He was already…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":888263,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-888262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888262","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=888262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/888263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=888262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=888262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=888262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}