Andrew Hastie has been making leadership noises. At least, that was the buzz among true believers last week when he strutted across the screen at Sky News Australia, tossing rocks at Net Zero and hissing in the general direction of wind turbines.

‘I wouldn’t be much use to the Coalition if I’m out the front trying to sell a policy I don’t believe in. I’m a proud member of the Liberal Party. I’ll serve where I’m serving as a Home Affairs Shadow right now. And I’ll continue to serve until such time as I can’t. But energy policy is something I care very deeply about … most of my colleagues, in fact, don’t support my position. So, I’m in the minority here, and I know that.’

Hastie might occupy the minority position on energy within the Coalition, but it’s the cool and popular minority harbouring the next leader among their number.

Threatening to defy Sussan Ley and quit to the backbench sounds exciting, which is certainly an emotion the Coalition could use a bit more of. Indeed, social media steamed up when, perched on red GT 351 Ford Falcon, the Shadow Minister for Home Affairs gave a passionate (rugged?) speech on Instagram:

‘I don’t know about you, but I have to remind myself that we used to make cars in this country. Check this car out. It’s a beautiful piece of craftsmanship. Its horsepower, its heritage, its grit. And it’s an Aussie car made by Aussie workers for the Australian people.

‘We used to make complex things in this country. In fact, with cars, we used to say, “Race them on a Sunday, sell them on a Monday.” It wasn’t just a slogan, it was a way of life. Competition drove innovation in our car industry.

‘But that’s all gone.

‘Today we are being told that we can forget our past forever. That we can no longer build physical things of value in this country. Both the Liberals and Labor have let us down in the past by letting the car industry disappear from our shores. And now Anthony Albanese and Labor are trying to cut us off forever from our proud heritage. They want to fill our streets with silent soulless cars made in China packed with tech that we didn’t design and that we don’t control.

‘It’s not just about the cars. It’s this sense that we’ve lost something. That we’re now just helpless consumers. The Australian people are at our best when we unlock our innate God-given drive to design and build complex things, like cars. We don’t do that anymore. We are a nation of flat-white-makers when we could be making beautiful cars like this again. And in order to do that we need cheap energy.

‘We have this in an abundance with coal and gas which Anthony Albanese and Labor are willing to sell to countries like Japan, China, and India. The hypocrisy is breathtaking. They’ll sell that stuff to countries that burn it, and they’ll deny it to the Australian people. They’ll deny us an industrial base like this.

‘So yes, I am for Australians. I am for putting Australians first. I want to see us making complex things because I am ambitious for my country and I know many of you are ambitious for your country too. It is time that we made a decision, what sort of country do we want to be? Do we want to be a country that is deindustrialised and effectively a nation of helpless consumers? Or do we want to unlock our energy potential and make the most of our coal and gas. Produce things again. Build stuff with our hands. If you want that, let’s go…’

A breath of fresh air.
pic.twitter.com/HDwzfGWzat

— Matthew Camenzuli (@Matt_Camenzuli) September 19, 2025

I will do my best not to take the Flat White slap personally!

Hastie has been very clear that he is not after the leadership, but you have to give him credit. Hastie lounging on a Ford looking chill is more flattering to the Liberal brand than Ley muttering demands for loyalty before wandering off camera into the darkness. The transition from tough to amicable is something Dutton never managed and whoever issued this advice has the right idea.

Hastie is also smart to frame the deindustrialisation argument around energy.

The United Kingdom is running a similar line, with deindustrialisation helping Reform’s Nigel Farage to round-up the old Labour strongholds and convert both the Union elders and their kids into the anti-Starmer protest movement. Farage is building a voting force of patriots against the diversity is our strength elites who fly Palestinian flags and rip down St George’s cross.

Manufacturing still has its claws in their hearts and souls. Declining white working class towns, living in the shadow of collapsing factories and empty ports, are a daily reminder of Net Zero’s spectre. Farage is offering them a future and they are joining him, one village at a time.

Things are not so clear-cut in Australia. Our manufacturing industry died first … a canary with its little feet twitching in the air. Instead of panicking at the expired ball of feathers, our politicians of the day nodded proudly and disposed of the manufacturing industry. We traded, quite deliberately, our manufacturing for consumerism and plenty of people grew rich. It was a liberation, of sorts. No more slaving away in the factories. That was being left to China, India, and South America.

Deindustrialisation was sold as a mark of evolution for our society.

Attempting to stir nostalgia for a factory-era among Gen Z and Millennials is tricky. There is no raging desire to abandon their latte-lifestyles for the grit of a factory. As a Millennial I have never, in my life, heard someone say, If only I could work in a factory! Their parents probably weren’t factory workers either. The people most likely to take a factory job are migrants who statistically are unlikely to vote Liberal.

This is not to say Elon Musk-style factories cannot be imported, only that it is not a viable election slogan in its current form. Which makes me curious, who is Hastie’s political ad for?

Probably those 50+ who remember their old Ford fondly and like the idea of having Australia Made printed on products. Even the rebellious side of the Coalition are stuck in a different generation.

The industrial Australia was a good Australia. The question we need to ask is, what does the next good Australia look like?

Maybe it’s okay to say we don’t know. That’s a question for the market to solve on its own once the conditions for success are cultivated. There is no need for government to micromanage the future of business, as Albanese, Chalmers, and Bowen obsess over. Nor do Opposition parties have to play the role of oracle. Ultimately, voters want hope, fairness, and stability.

Hastie is right to focus on energy.

Cheap, reliable energy.

Changing the economic equation on energy will shift Australia’s business environment. If the Liberals have the guts to push dramatic tax cuts as well, Australia will naturally shift out of despair and start making things again. Maybe not cars, because the modern union movement is allergic to productivity, but there are other things we need. Houses, for one. Facilities. Transport. All of these will make demands on third-party materials and their associated industries. Rapidly, the need will be met so long as the government backs off and resists the urge to rob everyone blind.

Andrew Hastie showed strength when he informed Sussan Ley last week that he would quit the frontbench if the party adopted Labor’s Net Zero by 2050 target.

However, if Hastie is in the minority on energy, then our suspicions about the Ley leadership to endlessly listen is what we suspect … a holding pattern to protect her leadership from criticism.

If Ley is for Net Zero and renewable energy then she needs to come out and own it. No more listening, Ley. We are ready to listen to you and make our choice.