Hastie’s truth bombs on tax and war will rattle the Liberal Party

Opposition frontbencher Andrew Hastie sees himself as the Liberal Party’s truth-teller, intent on breaking out of ideological shackles and tearing down dogma wherever he can.

In a compelling interview on ABC’s Insiders on Sunday, the former soldier delivered a line that will serve as a sharp warning to Angus Taylor, whose instincts draw heavily from Howard-era thinking on economics and foreign affairs.

“No one’s going to reward us for a final stand for neoliberal politics, OK,” Hastie said.

Hastie, who wanted the top job before exiting the leadership race after Taylor won the numbers, offered a new vision on tax and Australia’s place in the world.

In both areas, he has created a headache for Taylor and arguably made life easier for Anthony Albanese, who can now point to confusion in opposition ranks.

On tax, Hastie has given Labor more room to manoeuvre on scrapping tax breaks for property investors and potentially hiking taxes on big gas companies.

“We got smashed in 2022; we got smashed in 2025. Our primary vote is being cannibalised from both the right and the left. So I think adopting a posture of humility and being open-minded is important,” Hastie said, arguing the Liberals should no longer be “the first line of defence for corporate Australia”.

“I just think we need to overhaul the whole system. We either fix the system, or it’s torn down by people like Pauline Hanson.”

The Western Australian’s positioning puts him in line with another leading voice in the new vanguard of Liberals, former Menzies MP Keith Wolahan. Their thinking on big business and widening the party’s coalition to the non- asset-owning class is at odds with Taylor, who in an interview with this masthead described Labor’s tax ideas as an “assault on aspiration”.

Hastie is at risk of adopting the left’s framing of the debate on intergenerational equity and the social licence for gas firms, however, potentially ceding the opposition’s ability to create clear battle lines and campaign for votes ahead of the budget and Farrer byelection.

On foreign affairs, Hastie has gone where no major party politician has gone: admitting Donald Trump’s war in Iran represented a “huge miscalculation”. Hastie proves that one can hold this view at the same time as retaining a disdain for the theocratic butchers of Tehran.

The war would dent American prestige and cast doubt on the president’s judgment, Hastie said, plunging Australia into a new, truly multipolar era in which military and economic self-sufficiency will be crucial.

The effect of Hastie’s interview, which came after weeks of outspoken interventions, will accelerate the conversation about the potential upside of a Hastie-led Liberal Party.

Taylor is obviously safe in the job, yet his first weeks have been low-key and staid. It’s not proving to be easy in the new attention economy to get his message out ahead of Hastie, Pauline Hanson, Barnaby Joyce, Matt Canavan, and Tim Wilson, all of whom are nimble and love the spotlight. Hastie’s presence in a senior role under Taylor should push the party to be more adventurous in this existential moment.

Hastie has not raised in shadow cabinet some of the transformational ideas he has aired publicly, fuelling a sense he is not a team player. Some of his colleagues view him as a commentator/thought-leader without much of a strategy. After his fumbled leadership pitch, some of his closest colleagues question if he has the political smarts to build coalitions and mature into a leader.

Hastie is still on a journey and doesn’t have all the answers for how his Australia-first agenda can be turned into a coherent plan to take on Labor.