View From The Hill: Andrew Hastie Calls Out Trump's War Strategy

(MENAFN- The Conversation) Andrew Hastie hung out his leadership shingle in a weekend interview that may have a few Liberals wondering if the right’s factional heavyweights made the best judgement in choosing Angus Taylor for the top job.

Hastie wanted to run for the leadership earlier this year but the right’s numbers men decided it should be Taylor, more senior in the faction, who toppled Sussan Ley.

But so far Taylor has not cut through, and indeed, he looks like someone suited to more conventional times.

When Ley was leader, Hastie took himself to the backbench and conducted guerrilla warfare from there. Now, under Taylor, he is shadow minister for industry and sovereign capability, a job he says he is happy in, but, as Sunday’s interview on the ABC’s Insiders showed, he has no intention of being constrained by.

Taylor, who made Hastie deputy leader of the opposition in the House of Representatives (the actual deputy, Jane Hume, is a senator), knows it would be potentially dangerous to try to put a lead rope on the aspirant who will be stalking him over the next 18 months.

In Sunday’s interview, Hastie strongly called out US President Donald Trump’s Iran strategy. On the domestic front, he urged the need for comprehensive tax reform – even sounding open to some of the government’s thinking regarding the taxes on assets – rather than following the Liberals’ talking point that Labor only wants to tax people more.

Like the new Nationals’ leader, Matt Canavan, Hastie comes across as someone worth listening to (agree or disagree with him), not just a politician with a good memory for the cheat sheet.

In common with most Australians, Hastie isn’t a fan of Trump and the way he conducts policy. After a Trump outburst against allies earlier this month, he called the president“petulant”.

On Sunday, he said he had a“visceral” reaction to Trump’s Friday criticism of US allies not stepping up in the war with Iran.

While a critic of how Trump has handled things, Hastie is not going so far as to now reject the war.

Hastie warns against a ground war, fears for the United States’ credibility, and worries about Australians’ support for the US alliance being eroded.

As for a possible super profits tax on windfall gains gas exporters will make from the war – a policy both the Greens and One Nation urge – Hastie’s sympathies don’t lie with the large companies.

Labor will pick up on Hastie not being across the fine print when pressed about the Liberals saying last week the government’s batteries policy had integrity issues. This is evidence he’s not a details person, it will say.

But the Labor strategists looking to the longer term might be hoping the Liberals don’t eventually decide to install a third leader this term.

Meanwhile, and more immediately, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will hold a national cabinet on Monday morning to try to ensure maximum federal-state coordination as the fuel crisis deepens. The word from the federal government at the weekend was it wanted the next steps to be voluntary, rather than mandatory.

The government on Monday will also introduce legislation for new powers to enable it to underwrite companies’ additional imports of fuel, fertiliser and other essential items. Albanese said:

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