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Coalition senators Jacinta Price and Matt Canavan have leapt to the defence of Liberal frontbencher Andrew Hastie, after he turned to Instagram to describe unnamed party colleagues as cowards and muppets for criticising him anonymously.
In the latest social media spat to expose the deep divisions between Liberals over the party’s direction, Hastie copped flak within the party for posting a slick video to social media on Sunday in which he posed in denim next to a red 1969 Ford Falcon, extolling local manufacturing.
On Tuesday, he uploaded an Instagram story expressing his fury that some colleagues had provided anonymous quotes to The Australian urging him to fall in line. “Nameless cowards,” he wrote over a screen grab of the story, adding that his video had been produced by “competent, patriotic Gen Z staffers, you muppets”.
Hastie has emerged as the leading conservative alternative to Opposition Leader Sussan Ley, drawing attention with his blunt statement that he would quit or be sacked if she backed in net zero by 2050 as Coalition policy.
While he later told Sky News his opposition to net zero was a minority view, he has been active promoting his personal vision on manufacturing, climate and other issues outside his portfolio area of Home Affairs.
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In the video, he promoted local manufacturing, saying: “We’re a nation of flat-white makers, when we could be making beautiful cars like this again... I’m for Australians, I’m for putting Australians first. I want to see us making complex things because I’m ambitious for my country.”
Several MPs unwilling to go on the record said Angus Taylor, the Right faction candidate who lost a leadership ballot to Ley, had been told by close allies inside and outside parliament that Hastie was now the best candidate to take forward the conservative wing of the party, which is sceptical of Ley.
Ley’s leadership is not under immediate threat, but she has been dogged by repeated bouts of tension in her ranks since the party’s disastrous election loss.
Canavan shared Hastie’s post on X, saying he was frustrated by “cowards that don’t put their name to comments”, while Price, who was demoted to the backbench after refusing to endorse Ley’s leadership, praised Hastie’s leadership qualities while blasting MPs’ anonymous criticisms as “pathetic”.
Price has been vocal in her criticism of factional powerbroker Alex Hawke and other Liberal MPs who she felt threw her under a bus during a furore over her comments on migration.
“The Liberal MPs who disagree with Andrew Hastie’s views should have the courage to own their comments instead of hiding behind anonymity. It seems like the factional warlords are in overdrive with their pathetic backgrounding efforts to undermine a debate our country must have.
“Andrew’s courage and conviction to engage in the battle of ideas is to be commended. And it stands in contrast to the censorious behaviour of factional warlords.
“At a time when Australians are looking for substance and vision from their leaders, Andrew is demonstrating both vision and substance. My colleagues who criticise him should focus on delivering exactly that, instead of attacking their own.”
A screenshot of Andrew Hastie’s response to colleagues who anonymously mocked his original post.Credit: @andrewhastiemp
Opposition whip Aaron Violi told ABC TV that soul-searching was natural after a heavy defeat but “conversations about colleagues should always be had face-to-face”.
Hastie declined to comment.
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