Andrew Hastie considers legal action over ‘fake’ story

Far-right extremist says he lied about meeting MP to “get back at” left wing media.

Liberal member for Canning Andrew Hastie. Picture: AAP

Liberal MP Andrew Hastie says he is pursuing legal advice over ­articles published during the federal election campaign that reported he had met with far-right extremist and convicted criminal Neil Erikson at a white farmers’ rally in Perth in April last year.

Mr Hastie, who has regained his seat of Canning with a 4.6 per cent swing to the Liberals, announced he had placed the matter with his lawyers after Erikson posted a video on Google saying that he had made it all up.

In the video titled “The Media are idiots – Sorry Hastie” and posted hours after the polls closed at the weekend, Erikson said he had been at the rally but had lied about meeting Mr Hastie and another Liberal MP Ian Goodenough.

“I made up that I met Andrew Hastie and Ian Goodenough at the South African rally in Perth,” he said. “Now Andrew Hastie is a top bloke, got nothing against him but he is part of the Liberal Party and that fit my narrative so I had to do it.” He said he fed reporters the lie to get back at the left-wing media in Australia, “the same ones that lie about me every single day”.

“I merely walked past (the MPs) at the rally, I didn’t even know who they were,” he said.

Google pulled Erikson’s original video in which he claimed he had met the MPs because it contained hate speech.

Erikson has been convicted and fined for inciting hatred against Muslims and stood alongside dumped former senator Fraser Anning at a far-right rally in Melbourne earlier this year.

His claim about the Hastie meeting was widely reported in early May by several media outlets, including The Sydney Morning Herald, which issued an apology to Mr Hastie on May 9. Both MPs addressed the rally in Forrest Place, held in support of South African farmers fleeing the threat of violence and seeking asylum.

The Guardian reported that although Mr Hastie had denied having met Erikson, his political colleague Mr Goodenough recollected an encounter with ­Erikson.

Mr Hastie, who chairs the parliament’s intelligence and security committee, issued a written statement at the time saying: “I have never sought to nor agreed to meet with Mr Erikson. I’m confident that I did not encounter him on the day. I find his views abhorrent and his views should not be given a platform.”

He told The Australian yesterday that the lie “went viral” and that he had been abused and derided in public as a result. “I knew it was blatantly false and the matter is now with my lawyers,” he said.

A spokesman for Guardian Australia said their reports were not based on Erikson’s claims, but on Mr Goodenough saying he and Mr Hastie had met Erikson at the rally. “We approached Mr Hastie before publishing that article and he did not provide comment.

“When Mr Hastie later denied meeting Mr Erikson, we reported that also, along with Mr Good­enough’s further description of the ‘brief encounter’.”

Late yesterday, Mr Good­enough told The Australian his reported comments were taken out of context. “I was informed, after the fact by a staff member, that Neil Erikson may have also been there.”