The Liberal politician and member for Canning, stood down from his position as Shadow Minister for Home Affairs, citing issues with the Liberal party’s immigration policy.
Rumours swirled that Hastie, now on the backbench, would challenge the leadership of party leader Susan Ley during the next party room meeting.
However, Dr Simon Stevens, a lecturer of Historical and Political Studies at Edith Cowan University, believes Hastie’s actions did not imply an immediate attempt at a leadership challenge.
“This is not uncommon for ambitious young politicians to do this, they test the waters, they’ll sound people out, they start counting numbers.”
Andrew Hastie’s resignation letter posted to Facebook
Hastie has long been attached to the right-wing movement within the Liberal party and has been accused of drawing heavily from Donald Trump’s political repertoire.
One case is using the tagline “Australian First” when discussing a move toward more domestic manufacturing in the country.
Dr Stevens believes this style of “Trumpian” politics has made the move towards the centre that Ley and many other Liberals members find desirable, difficult.
A challenge could be disastrous for the Liberals, who are trying to rebuild after a historically poor election performance that saw the Labour Party win a 94-seat majority.
Whether this was his plan or just speculation from the wider public, the party room went much differently than anticipated.
It was reported that Mary Aldred, a first-term MP, was critical of Hastie in a speech to the party room, taking issue with how he handled his resignation from the front bench.
Aldred made direct reference to the fear of becoming like the Victorian liberals, who have a history of dysfunction and infighting.
Many have speculated that Aldred was directed by Ley to make the speech.
But Dr Stevens believes Ley is not the only one upset with Hastie’s behaviour.
“There are a number of Liberal Party figures who, including Peter Dutton […] are upset with Andrew Hastie.”
In the case of Dutton, a leak of his post-election review coincidently came out a day before the party room meeting.
The review was not kind to Hastie, putting much of the blame of the election lost squarely on his inability to develop an adequate defence plan.
Whether this leak snuffed out any thoughts of a leadership challenge from Hastie is unconfirmed.
One could question if there’s been a co-ordinated effort by the Liberal Party to blunt Hatie’s ambition.
What the future for the member of Canning within the party looks like is unknown.
He did not make a speech during the party room meeting, but has said that his silence won’t last.
Dr Stevens believes that Hastie may still challenge the leadership.
“I can envisage that he’ll make a tilt for the leadership. I’m not sure that it will actually be successful.
“He might actually lose and leave the Liberal Party.”
Joshua Johnston
Joshua Johnston is a student in ECU’s Graduate Diploma of News and Entertainment Media.
