Andrew Hastie is ‘leadership material’ but there’s still votes to be counted: Cash

Senator Michaelia Cash says Canning MP Andrew Hastie is a future leader of the Liberal Party but that it was ultimately up to him whether he wanted to put his hand up.

As the dust settles on the Coalition’s extraordinary election defeat, the party will need to elect a new leader following its former leader Peter Dutton’s defeat in his own seat of Dickson.

Dutton and Hastie at a campaign press conference last week.Credit: James Brickwood

Hastie has been named a contender but has not revealed his intentions.

Speaking upon her return to the state, Cash said leadership discussions will take place over the next few days.

“I have always said Andrew Hastie is a future leader of the Liberal Party but again, (a) that’s got to be our decision for Mr Hastie to even put his name forward and (b) those discussions will ensue over the next few days,” she said.

“We actually still have seats here in WA – Forrest and Bullwinkel – that have not even been called yet.

“So at this point in time, the lay of the land is not even clear in terms of final seats coming to the Liberal Party or not coming to the Liberal Party.”

Hastie did not respond to requests for comment but put up a short statement on his Facebook page on Sunday afternoon, saying he was humbled the people of Canning had put their confidence in him to represent them for another three years.

“There’s a lot of work to be done. Let’s get moving,” he said.

Hastie defied the national trend in urban areas against the Liberals, recording a 3.7 per cent swing to him on two-party preferences and a slim 0.2 per cent swing on primary votes in the face of strong swings to One Nation and Legalise Cannabis.

He was criticised for being largely absent on the national stage during the election campaign until the final fortnight, when he stood alongside Peter Dutton announcing a pledge to increase Australia’s defence spending to 3 per cent of GDP.

It was at this press conference that he fielded questions about his position on females in combat roles in the ADF, which became an election issue after the Liberals dumped Whitlam candidate Ben Britton for saying women should not serve in combat roles.

Britton pointed to comments Hastie had made several years earlier, but Hastie said they were made in reflecting his own experience in the SAS and that the Coalition’s policy was to allow anyone to fight in combat roles as long as they passed the physical and mental training.

His campaign was largely fought on local issues like investment in the Peel Health Campus and smell issues at a local piggery – much of his outdoor advertising did not have the Liberal logo.

Shadow Defence Minister Andrew Hastie at the Mandurah waterfront in his electorate.Credit: Trevor Collens

Cash said the Liberals’ message did not resonate with the Australian people.

“We have got to take a long, hard look at what went wrong and accept that, and then look at rebuilding,” she said.

“Ultimately, though, we can come back and in fact, I think we can come back even better and even stronger.”

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