Why Rinehart is pushing to make Hastie an outcast, and backing Hanson to bring him down

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Henry Pike arrived at Gina Rinehart’s beachfront mansion near Noosa expecting a relaxed chat over a New Year’s lunch. Instead, the young, socially conservative Queensland Liberal found himself being asked to pick a side.

The billionaire mining magnate, who had previously thrown the odd bit of financial support behind Pike, wanted him to distance himself from his friend and fellow right-winger Andrew Hastie and move closer to Pauline Hanson’s One Nation.

The word “traitor” was used repeatedly by Rinehart throughout, according to several sources who received a briefing about the January 9 meeting. It is a word – referencing Hastie’s role in exposing war crimes allegations against Ben Roberts-Smith – which could now define the new war for ascendancy on the right of Australian politics.

Gina Rinehart invited Queensland Liberal Henry Pike to her Sunshine Coast home for a quiet chat. AAPIMAGEPike was polite, friends say, but adamant he would not betray Hastie in favour of Rinehart’s sponsorship. The financial rewards on offer were clear by the surroundings: Rinehart’s $34 million Webb House, which sits on 2000 square metres, touches the sand at the exclusive Sunshine Beach.

But what the MP for the nearby seat of Bowman saw next was proof of a nexus between Rinehart and the surging populist party that now echoes Rinehart’s “traitor” line in its wildly popular satirical Please Explain cartoons.

Emerging from the bedrooms of the sprawling mansion in peak summer, were Hanson, Barnaby Joyce, and One Nation strategist James Ashby. A camera for breakfast TV crosses was set up nearby for Joyce as he and his new colleagues held a summer get-together at Rinehart’s holiday home.

Hastie’s bid to strike back against this network escalated dramatically this week, when he took aim at Hanson and Joyce for the cartoon, published on social media in July, attacking him as a “traitor” and “gutless maggot” over his evidence against decorated former soldier Roberts-Smith. The episode, called Don’t be Hastie, has had more than 145,000 views on YouTube and more still across platforms.

A cartoon version of Liberal MP Andrew Hastie in the One Nation video “Don’t be Hastie”. Please Explain An SAS veteran who served three tours in the Middle East, including two in Afghanistan, Hastie was among the 21 veterans compelled to testify in the 2022 Federal Court defamation trial brought by Roberts-Smith. The Victoria Cross recipient had accused Nine newspapers of defaming him in reports that he had committed murder during deployments to Afghanistan.

In April this year, Roberts-Smith was arrested and charged with five counts of war crimes of murder. He vehemently denies the allegations.

In an email to supporters on Tuesday, Hastie took his fight with the right-wing populist party to another level, saying he provided evidence against Roberts-Smith because he was subpoenaed and believed in the rule of law.

“For that, I’ve been called a rat, a traitor, a dog c---, and many other things,” he said in the email. “People I trusted have walked away from me or failed to defend me.”

Hastie then accused Hanson and Joyce of being “lying cowards” after they denied ever having used the term, and declared war on One Nation through the next election.

“I’m calling time on cowards who have never served a day in the Australian Defence Force attacking my service record, my integrity, and my loyalty to Australia,” he wrote.

Hastie doubling down on his attack on Hanson in a press gallery doorstop on Wednesday. Alex EllinghausenThe dramatic escalation in this feud follows One Nation’s victory in Secret Harbour last month - a state seat nested within Hastie’s West Australian electorate of Canning, where Liberal campaigners said some One Nation voters complained about Hastie’s position on Roberts-Smith. It is the latest flashpoint in a conservative battle reshaping the electoral map and threatening to all but wipe out the Liberal and National Parties at state and federal level as One Nation out-polls the Coalition and, sometimes, Labor.

Hastie declared Hanson “not fit to govern” the country and accused her of casting “a massive slur” on veterans around the country who also thought that Australian soldiers should hold high standards of conduct on the battlefield.

“It’s ... not just an attack on me because you’ve got to remember more than 20-plus SAS combat veterans were called to give evidence in the Federal Court. Are they traitors too?” he asked in his newsletter.

Hastie has become a target for those who continue to champion Roberts-Smith since his dramatic arrest in April. The fierce criticism has extended beyond One Nation and into a conservative network of right-wing podcasters and influencers, circles where the advocacy of Rinehart and media mogul Kerry Stokes has considerable sway.

It has led to numerous threats against Hastie and his family, forcing him to dramatically upgrade his Australian Federal Police security detail.

Gina Rinehart and Andrew Hastie in 2018 at the launch of a learn-to-swim facility. But the hostility did not begin with the cartoon. For Hastie, it stretches back through the war crimes allegations and the conservative media ecosystem in his home state of Western Australia and his increasingly uneasy relationship with some of the wealthy figures who are shaping the new Australian right.

Hastie first met Rinehart at an event aboard The World cruise ship in Fremantle in 2017. Rinehart had a large private cabin with a grand piano, Bollinger and canapés. At dinner, she asked him if he knew Dagny Taggart, the heroine from Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged who fights against left-wing collectivism.

Hastie, 43, later told friends that Rinehart’s views and apparent libertarian streak were rather different to his brand of conservatism. But the following year, they joined forces to open a swimming pool in his electorate.

But by mid-2022, not long after Hastie had testified in the Roberts-Smith defamation case, the relationship had soured.

Hastie had been invited by the American Chamber of Commerce to speak about AUKUS and had roped in Republican congressman Mike Gallagher and British politician Tom Tugendhat to join them. He later discovered the event was intended to be recorded for distribution to journalists selected by Rinehart. He objected and cancelled.

Sources familiar with the incident say “it pissed her off” and was taken personally.

A few weeks later, Hastie was on the long drive from his outer-suburban home to a city fundraiser for a fellow Liberal sponsored by Hancock Prospecting when a colleague called him.

“I’ve been told to scrub you, mate,” they said.

Hastie turned around and went home. He subsequently heard for the first time that people in Rinehart’s orbit now referred to him as “the enemy” or “the traitor”.

Rinehart trades on the fact she is a long-time supporter of veterans through charities such as Soldier On, the SAS Resources Fund and the Commando Welfare Trust. Her youngest daughter, Ginia, married ex-SAS soldier and Afghanistan veteran Simon Robinson in 2016.

A representative for Rinehart sent a statement, saying: “It is veterans and Mr Hastie’s own conservative social media followers who use that word (traitor) to describe him. In his evidence under oath, Mr Hastie made clear that he did not personally witness Ben Roberts-Smith performing various of the gossip claims, just heard the gossip from others.”

The political networks around Ben Roberts-Smith have become influential inside the Coalition too, around the shadow cabinet table and beyond.

At the last federal election some candidates previously on friendly terms with Rinehart’s network were told they’d receive no help if they posted images with Hastie on social media.

At a shadow cabinet meeting earlier this year in which Hastie was absent, a couple of members spoke in favour of Roberts-Smith. Michael McCormack and Phil Thompson’s relationships with Hastie have worsened, as has Alex Antic’s.

Former opposition leader Peter Dutton pictured in 2025 with Hastie, then shadow defence minister. James BrickwoodHastie’s relationship with former prime minister Tony Abbott, once one of the central figures in his political world, and Abbott’s former chief of staff, broadcaster and columnist Peta Credlin, has also soured.

Both have supported Roberts-Smith publicly and are close to Rinehart. Hastie was a notable absentee from Abbott’s annual Pollie Pedal last month, a fundraising event for veterans.

When asked on ABC’s Radio National this week about his relationship with Abbott, following the former prime minister’s overt support of Roberts-Smith, Hastie was diplomatic but blunt.

“I’ve had long chats with Tony. I’ll let him explain his position, but he knows exactly where I stand on this issue,” he told Sally Sara. Abbott, now the federal party president, declined to comment.

Relationships with many colleagues have also changed amid internal divisions over One Nation’s overt campaigning for Roberts-Smith. Roberts-Smith’s mother Sue Roberts-Smith last year emailed Liberal MPs, warning them not to trust the man who testified against her son.

Those close to Hastie were also outraged in April that Michaelia Cash had allowed her adviser, Brett McCarthey, to pen an opinion piece in the Stokes-owned West Australian newspaper supporting Roberts-Smith. Likewise, tensions were raised when defence personnel spokesman Phillip Thompson paraded a prominent critic of Hastie around Parliament House in June.

Andrew Hastie called Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce “lying cowards”. Alex EllinghausenAs angry comments fill their social media accounts, some in the shadow cabinet even raised the idea of somehow signalling support for Roberts-Smith, for fear of punishment among conservative electorates.

But for some Liberal moderates and much of the progressive media, Hastie has become a hero.

After a long period leading the campaign against “mass migration” (a term many Liberals refuse to use) in concert with his allies at conservative campaign group Advance, Hastie was scorned by his far-right online base during a debate on Labor’s post-Bondi hate groups laws.

The Coalition succeeded in watering down the bill to protect freedom of speech, but the parliamentary jostling over details did not register in the world of populist influencers. The fickle group, which previously cast Hastie as a conservative hero, then turned him into its top hate-figure.

“They’re like the Joker from Batman — they just want to see the world burn,” Hastie later told confidants.

But the depth of paranoia about this group among conservative MPs was displayed when Hastie and his friend, home affairs spokesman Jonno Duniam, phoned a right-wing podcaster the night before the Bondi laws were to be voted on. Sam Bamford, of the 2WorldsCollide podcast, was briefed on the Liberal decision to support Labor in banning neo-Nazi and Islamist groups.

Hastie and Liberal senators Jonno Duniam and Alex Antic depart the meeting room following the February 13 leadership spill that installed Angus Taylor. Getty ImagesDespite the explanation, Bamford, a figure now kept at a distance by most Liberals except Roberts-Smith supporters Alex Antic and Phil Thompson, continues to rail against Hastie and now backs One Nation.

The challenge of tackling One Nation has paralysed many within the Coalition. Nationals leader Matt Canavan has told colleagues that telling Hanson’s supporters she’s no good is like trying to convince your mate their girlfriend is bad for them while they’re still in love.

Canavan and others have been critical of Hanson at times, but they know it will be a long road until voters focus more on Hanson’s obvious flaws nearer to the election.

Hastie and his allies are still sour about the way Taylor’s forces manoeuvred to push his younger rival out of the race to replace Sussan Ley early this year.

Even if it was not the main goal, Hastie’s attacks this week have clearly set him apart from Taylor.

Ben Small, a federal MP from WA who is close to Hastie, said his military background was key to understanding how he had responded to the “despicable” One Nation campaign.

“It would have been easy to react emotionally … to take the bait and lash out. Such a response might have left him vulnerable, or for a weaker man, to quit,” Small said.

Small’s statement is an admission of just how vulnerable Hastie has been lately as he has deleted social media and taken on additional security to protect him against violent threats.

“But being a student of warfare, his instinct was to dig in, take cover on higher ground and prepare for the kill on his terms,” Small said.

Andrew Hastie with a copy of the Sun Tzu classic Art of War in the House of Representatives in February.Dominic LorrimerBut other Liberals say Hastie is more of a sniper than a day-to-day combatant who can thrive in the nimble business of modern politics. They point to his statements as recently as March for the Coalition to work closer with One Nation and believe he is mostly motivated from self-interest, not an ideological or principled position.

These critics say Hastie makes big declarations in media interviews or his newsletters before retreating without a clear political strategy. Hastie has avoided the late-night echo chambers of News24 (formerly Sky News) and the News Corp newspapers for months and instead worked more closely with the ABC and The Guardian. Liberal critic and former PM Malcolm Turnbull has lent Hastie support.

“People are either known for what they’ve done as a politician or what they’ve done before politics,” one high-level Liberal source said. “Peter Garrett is better known for what he did before politics. So is Andrew Hastie. He’s been in politics for 12 years now and nobody can point to anything he’s achieved.”

Hanson this week told the Stokes-owned Nightly she had “never called him a traitor” but would “call him a wanker”.

“He is now concerned about losing his seat – and of course, what happened in Secret Harbour is a clear indication of where people are casting their vote, in part of his seat,” she said.

“Hastie has taken it personally because I’m standing a candidate in his seat. He feels insulted by that, as if I shouldn’t run a candidate in Canning.”

James Ashby too has been a fierce critic. Hastie revealed this week he was subjected to a threatening phone call in April from Hanson’s right-hand man, accusing him of running the Coalition’s attacks on Sean Black, a convicted rapist who was re-employed by the party. He says Ashby also threatened to further weaponise the Roberts-Smith issue.

Ashby declined to comment to this masthead, but One Nation sources denied threats were made and that Hanson’s long-time adviser had simply reminded Hastie that both parties needed to fight Labor.

But One Nation’s personal attacks risk exposing a fault line within its own party.

Barnaby Joyce attempted to bring down the heat on Thursday and was seen near the Senate chamber involved in animated discussions with Hanson.

“I don’t believe Mr Hastie is a traitor. That’s an absurdity, he’s not,” he told the ABC before apologising to Hastie in this masthead.

He told MPs that he did not know the traitor video existed, which had left him exposed in media interviews. Joyce has told friends he has felt uncomfortable for months about One Nation’s approach to the Roberts-Smith case while the case is before the courts.

Hastie, in turn, has told allies he sees a hairline fracture in the party he can use in his fight, showing Hanson to be a fringe voice on the issue. By the end of the week, the RSL, Labor, Coalition and influential commentators were all casting the One Nation leader as morally deficient.

If the party’s position doesn’t improve by mid-next year under Taylor, colleagues are wondering if Hastie’s supporters will push him towards a challenge. A book, due to be published next year, will be targeted at young Australians aged 18 to 25 who want to burn it all down. In it Hastie argues that’s a bad idea.

Asked about his future ambitions this week, Hastie said Taylor was “the right guy for the job right now”.

“We’ve got a big fight on our hands, but I’m confident he can lead us through this,” he said.

For now, Hastie insists the fight is not about his political future. But as the right tears itself apart, the battle over who gets to define loyalty may prove the battle that determines his path.

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