Andrew Hastie attacks Mark McGowan after Premier caught on hot mic

A war-of-words has erupted after WA Premier Mark McGowan was caught in a hot-mic scandal on his first day in China.

Andrew Hastie has vowed to “take on” Mark McGowan, after the WA Premier was caught making disparaging comments about the federal Liberal MP and SAS veteran.

Mr McGowan was – in footage circulated by his own office – caught on camera bad mouthing the federal opposition’s spokesman for defence while on a trade mission to China.

During the shared footage of Mr McGowan at a China-Australia Chamber of Commerce lunch, the Premier can be heard making comments about Mr Hastie, as well as former finance minister and now OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann.

“So, I like Mathias Cormann, he had the same view as me, but he had no sway … on this issue. He had a lot of sway, but on this issue, he was the odd one out,” Mr McGowan can be heard saying to Mr Barber.

“The other Western Australian who was senior, well, there was a few of them actually – Hastie … He swallowed some sort of Cold War pills back … when he was born, and he couldn’t get his mindset out of that.”

A war-of-words has since erupted.

Mr Hastie said he is thrilled to know he’s taking up “so much space rent-free” in Mr McGowan’s head, while his Senate colleague Michaelia Cash lambasted the Premier for his “actively disparaging” comments.

WA Premier Mark McGowan is on a trade mission to China this week where he was captured making comments about Andrew Hastie. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Mr Hastie and Mr McGowan have traded barbs over China for years, but in a statement on Wednesday, Mr Hastie said the Premier was “out of his depth”.

“The truth is that he’s a prison guard looking for work now that the pandemic has finished; I’m not surprised he’s running down Australian MPs in China,” Mr Hastie said.

“But it is surprising from a former legal officer in the Royal Australian Navy. I’m not sure I’d want to serve alongside him on a naval ship in a crisis. Character is everything. What’s he really saying when the cameras aren’t running?”

In an interview with Sky News later, Mr Hastie said he was “going to take (Mr McGowan) on”, and that he believed Mr McGowan lacked the “intellectual depth” to deal with issues such as China.

Mr Hastie also referenced Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s National Press Club address on Monday, during which she declared strategic contest in Asia went beyond just the US and China, and that Australia wanted “strategic equilibrium”.

Senator Cash later backed in Mr Hastie, and questioned how Mr McGowan could be effectively promoting WA if these were the comments he was making.

“(Mr Hastie) is an outstanding shadow defence minister, but more than that – he is someone who always puts Australia’s best interests first.,” she told Sky News.

“He is a former member of the SAS. He is someone in our country that has put his own life on the line to ensure that he defends the principles that we live by each and every day.

“So if Mr McGowan thinks that this is the way you actively promote WA on the international stage, I respectfully say he is wrong.

“Mr McGowan doesn’t understand what the federal government is responsible for.”

Mr Hastie, the opposition’s defence spokesman, has responded. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Mr McGowan has stood by his comments, and doubled down in attacking Mr Hastie and the former Coalition government over their China discourse.

“Mr Hastie’s comments about potential armed conflict were irresponsible, immature and dangerous. Australians don’t want or need inflammatory commentary like that,” a spokesperson from the Premier’s office said.

“It is widely acknowledged that the former Liberal government damaged our economic relationship with our biggest trading partner and that the State government is committed to strengthening the relationship to benefit the local WA economy and local jobs into the future.

“This is the key focus of the Premier’s important trade mission in Beijing this week.”

Mr Hastie was condemned by China in 2019 after he used an opinion piece in the Nine newspapers to liken the West’s response to a rising China to a failure to contain the rise of Nazi Germany.

He was blocked from a study tour to China later that year.

Meanwhile, Mr McGowan last year accused his eastern counterparts of failing to fully appreciate China’s contribution to Australia’s economic success.

Nearly half of all of WA’s trade is with China.

Mr McGowan is the second premier in recent months to visit China on a trade mission.

His visit is aimed at spruiking the appeal of WA as a study option for Chinese students and to improve trading.

In his speech to the Chamber of Commerce event on Monday, he said he would use his visit to advocate for the removal of all tariffs on WA exports.

Mr Hastie said the Premier should be focused on issues at home.

“I wish he’d focus on the things that matter, like fixing the Peel Health Campus, fixing the housing shortage and building new infrastructure in regional areas,” he said.

“Instead, he’s off to China, trying to do Penny Wong’s job as Foreign Minister.”