Andrew Hastie

Introduction

	A wind turbine at Hallett in South Australia
	This section added 2024/06/19 Influence on my thinking Mr Hastie's behaviour has had quite a big impact on me. Long before Mr Hastie started on his scare campaign I was convinced of the pressing need to transition to renewable energy, but he has caused me to think more deeply about concepts like the responsibilities of a politician, truth, decency and the low standards we see in many of our politicians. And he has shown me how gullible people can be. His arguments are quite unconvincing to any thinking person, yet he seems to have taken in many. My page on a community independent candidate for Canning was a response to Mr Hastie's despicable behaviour. My page on WA's offshore wind energy zone might not have been written without Mr Hastie's duplicity. My pages on truth and politician's responsibilities were written as a consequence of my reaction to Mr Hastie's demonstrated low ethical standards. My page on gullibility came about from the number of people who apparently were duped by Mr Hastie's lies. Home Top Index His actions have made me think more about self respect and the question of whether a man who has behaved as Mr Hastie has can have any self respect. (I've argued that self respect must be earned, and that if it is not earned then it would more properly be classed as narcissism.) It has been quite a few years since one person's behaviour has had such a big impact on my own thinking.

This page is not about whether hundreds of wind turbines should, or should not, be built off the Western Australian coast, it is about Mr Hastie's level of dishonesty in his opposition to the proposal and his bias and lack of ethical standards in general.

But more important than Mr Hastie's dishonesty is the fact that his low moral standards are not uncommon among major-party Australian politicians. Many of them are not living up to the responsibilities that we should be able to expect, even to take for granted.

Shortly after the Albanese government opened a period of consultation on the proposed offshore wind farm zone Mr Hastie produced a petition against it.

The language in the petition itself was fairly innocuous, but in the preamble to the petition he made a number of misleading, if not downright false, claims. What Mr Hastie was doing was nothing short of a highly unethical scare campaign.

Mr Hastie has made claims about the number of people who have signed his petition, but since he has shown himself to be a liar we can take no notice of his claim. As just one example of Mr Hastie's willingness to misrepresent numbers he wrote in his attack on the supporters of the Gazan civilians that there were 'thousands' of Israelis killed in the 7th October 2024 Hamas attack while the true figure was about 1200.

Not content with his petition, Mr Hastie also did a card drop to, I suppose, the households within his electorate of Canning and in the vicinity of the proposal. Again, this was misleading. (I live in the electorate of Canning.) I've written in detail about Mr Hastie's dishonest card-drop statements below.

Mr Hastie's refusal to provide evidence in support of his claims

I have asked Mr Hastie for evidence in support of his claims through a local Facebook page and directly by email several times. I've informed him of this Web site. He cannot be unaware of my exposure of his lies and misleading claims and he ignores my demands for evidence. (I know he received my emails because he added me to his email propaganda list).

He has never provided me with any justification for his claims, he has never responded to my attempts to engage with him at all. This indicates that he cannot provide evidence in support of his claims and he knows that his claims are unjustified.

Declaration of interest

What has driven me in exposing Mr Hastie’s lies? In the fewest possible words, a profound love for the truth and for our shared environment.

Don't walk by

As I’ve written elsewhere, when we see something that is wrong we all have a responsibility to correct it if to do so is in our power. Mr Hastie, behaving as he has, should not be in parliament. The voters of Canning put him there, they have a responsibility to remove him.

What do I hope to achieve?

Replacing Mr Hastie with a representative we can all trust and respect. I’ve largely eradicated two species of invasive weeds locally. We could think of politicians like Mr Hastie as another species of weed that we can eradicate if we want to try.

In relation to renewable energy and wind power in particular

I am strongly in favour of replacing Australia's fossil fuel fired generation with renewable energy. The burning of fossil fuels is widely recognised as the main cause of climate change, ocean acidification, sea level rise and ocean warming. The air pollution from the burning of fossil fuels kills millions of people world-wide each year.

I have long striven against anyone who dishonestly opposed wind power developments in South Australia where I have lived until 2022. But above all, I love truth, honesty, justice and high ethical standards.

I now live in Mr Hastie's electorate of Canning and about 40 kilometres from the closest point of the proposed wind farm zone.

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While I hold that the offshore wind farm zone could displace millions of tonnes of greenhouse gasses and would be desirable for that reason, I do have some concerns about possible environmental impacts (which I have covered in another page on this site). I would prefer to see onshore wind farms, solar farms, and power storage facilities.

Mr Hastie's lies, misleading statements and scare campaign

I dissect the lies and absurdities in the preamble to Mr Hastie's petition below:

Mr Hastie's statements	The facts
"Labor is planning to lock up nearly 8,000 square kilometres of coast for an offshore wind farm 20 kilometres off the coast of Mandurah, all the way down to Dunsborough."	Not a single kilometre of coast is going to be locked up. The sentence is nonsensical in any case: he says that the development would be locking up the coast and also that it is 20km off the coast, contradicting himself.
"What will this do to our coastal lifestyle? What will this do to recreational and commercial fishing?"	The short answers to these three questions are: nothing, nothing and nothing bad. How many people swim or surf 20km or more off the coast? How many recreational fishermen go out 20km or more? (There is nothing in the proposal indicated that recreational fishing between the turbines will not be allowed.) Trawl fishing in the wind farm area may be banned; I would argue that would be a big plus for the sea floor environment.
"You'll never see a 120-metre-tall wind turbine in Cottesloe."	Some statements are so stupid as to not deserve a response.
"Labor is coming for our community and our coastal lifestyle."	In what way? How could a wind farm 20km of the coast, so far as to be hardly noticeable, damage the community and coastal lifestyle?
"They don't care that wind turbines fuelling their green dreams are built in countries like China"	Yes, many wind turbines are built in China. Others are built in the USA, India, Germany, South Korea, Japan, Iran, Croatia, Spain, Taiwan, France, Denmark, Brazil and Belgium. They would also be built in Australia if Mr Hastie's Liberal party has not been so opposed to renewable energy for so many years.
"And they don't care that you're paying higher power bills because of their pursuit of renewables."	The fact is that in 2024 wind power is (together with solar power) one of the cheapest forms of electricity generation available.
"Our community doesn't want to carry the burden of replacing proven coal and gas power with renewables."	As I have shown above, there is very little burden. Does Mr Hastie really think that the local people would prefer to see good farm land turned into ugly coal mines with the resulting emissions and fatalities from air pollution?

Mr Hastie's misleading card drop

One of Mr Hastie's cards with its dishonest message

The card in the image on the right appeared in my letter box on 2024/03/20. I suppose it appeared in every one of the many thousands of letter boxes in Mr Hastie's electorate. Mr Hastie plainly has plenty of money to spend on his scare campaign; is it provided by the fossil fuel industry?

True to form his card contained more lies.

The wind farm will not be destructive. Of course Mr Hastie doesn't explain how it could possibly be destructive, he's not interested in facts, he only wants to frighten gullible people. (He is, in fact, exploiting the gullibility of his constituents; something that no responsible politician would do.) On the other hand the fossil fuels that Mr Hastie loves certainly are destructive - consider the very recent report from the World Meteorological Organisation that I have referred to on another page on this site.

And the wind farm will not be dangerous. Again he doesn't explain how it could possibly be dangerous, he can't because it won't. It's just another lie.

Whether or not it is ugly is a matter of opinion. Many people, myself included, think that wind turbines are majestic and a symbol of a more sustainable and less damaged future. I would call Mr Hastie's coal mines ugly, wouldn't you?

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The motivations of politicians like Mr Hastie

The world needs politicians who are motivated toward doing what is good for their constituents, what is best for their nation, for the long term, for the environment (if we don't protect our environment we all suffer in the long run) and what is morally good.

Instead, in Mr Hastie and 'representatives' like him, we see people motivated toward looking after their own careers, climbing the greasy poll of advancement and doing what they can to retain their seat at the next election. They are motivated toward looking after whatever organisation might be willing to make big donations to their campaign funds, such as the fossil fuel industries. If they can frighten their constituents enough to make them donate that's good in their eyes too.

Who do politicians like Mr Hastie represent? Not their constituents, not what is good and right. They represent whoever they feel it is to their personal advantage to represent.

I reiterate, we need more honest, good, progressive, ethically motivated community independents.

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Who does Mr Hastie represent?

Mr Hastie is failing to represent his constituents and he is treating them with contempt.

Mr Hastie is supposed to represent the people of Canning in the federal parliament.

I am one of the people of Canning. Mr Hastie seems to care nothing for much that I hold dear: high ethical standards, truth, honesty, non-discrimination, fairness, environment, climate action.

A good representative respects his constituents

Then there's treating people with respect; Mr Hastie treats his constituents as if he thinks they are foolish enough to believe anything. He seems to have found some success in doing this, but it is despicable and in the long run it may well rebound to his disadvantage.

One of the many differences between Mr Hastie and the community independents

While Mr Hastie tries to use the 'lowest common denominator' of his constituent's fears, beliefs, and misconceptions, the community independents aim at the 'highest common denominator', and appeal to people who are willing to think deeply about things and not be gullible enough to accept manipulation by scare campaigns.

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Mr Hastie's preference

Mr Hastie calls wind turbines ugly.

He praises 'proven coal and gas'.

He would rather see farm land like this, in the beautiful Bylong Valley of NSW...

... turned into this.

This, a very small part of the Ulan coal mine near the Bylong Valley, apparently is Mr Hastie's idea of beautiful.

People like Mr Hastie are wanting exactly this. They want to see the Bylong Valley ripped up for coal strip mines.

The air pollution from the burning of fossil fuels kills millions of people world-wide each year. It can be calculated that just the coal mined from just Gina Rinehart's mines kills about 12,000 people per year through air pollution.

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This is the choice we have, clean renewable, sustainable energy, or polluting coal and gas. People demand cheap and plentiful electricity; the Earth demands lower emissions. How could any reasonable person prefer coal to renewable energy?

I know what I would prefer.

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This section added 2024/05/20

Mr Hastie doesn't care about the climate change that is damaging our state, our nation and our world.

Recently dead trees in Mr Hastie's electorate

The trees in the photo on the right and many other trees in the SW of WA have died following an exceptionally long, hot, dry summer. In May of 2024 my wife and I have been noticing many dead trees scattered around the locality. Blind Freddy couldn't miss the connection between this drought, climate change, and the burning of fossil fuels.

Also see The big dry: forests and shrublands are dying in parched Western Australia on the University of WA site.

These, and the many other dead or dying trees that I have seen were in Andrew Hastie's electorate of Canning, where I live. Mr Hastie has chosen to ignore the climate change problem (see elsewhere in these pages) for the sake of political and personal advantage.

CSIRO: Australia's changing climate; a quote...

"The drying trend is particularly strong between May to July over southwest Western Australia, with rainfall since 1970 around 20 per cent less than the average from 1900 to 1969. Since 1999, this reduction has increased to around 26 per cent."

(I have expanded on the climate change problem, particularly as it impacts WA, on another page on this site.)

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More lies: in Mr Hastie's emails

Wind power reliability and fossil fuelled power station reliability

Mr Hastie sends frequent emails to his supporters (and to me!) In the emails he repeats the same lies and misleading statements over and over. Perhaps he thinks that a lie told often enough will be believed. Indeed, I seem to recall that researchers have found there to be some justification in that theory.

Variable or unreliable? Using 'unreliable' in regard to wind farm output when the correct term is 'variable' shows either ignorance or a desire to be intentionally misleading. I don't believe that Mr Hastie is ignorant on this point. Wind turbine output varies depending on the wind speed. Wind speed can be, and is, forecast, so the output of a wind turbine can be predicted. In addition, many modern wind farms have battery backup so that the output can be held constant in spite of variable wind speed.

In an email that Mr Hastie sent out on 2nd April 2024 he said that wind turbines were unreliable. This is quite false, they are highly reliable. On the other hand Mr Hastie's beloved fossil fuelled power stations are unreliable.

Wind turbines have been shown to be 98% reliable (that is, they are unexpectedly out of commission 2% of the time). And since there are usually 20 or more turbines in a wind farm, if one fails unexpectedly it makes little difference to the generation of the whole wind farm. I've written at some length on wind power reliability on my page on 'Wind power problems, alleged problems and objections'.

On the other hand, as an Australia Institute study found, in 2018 alone there were 135 breakdowns in gas and coal power stations.

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Impact of a failure, wind turbine or fossil fuel power station

What impact on the power grid will there be if there is a failure?

As an example, Eraring coal fired power station consists of four 720 megawatt generation units, so if one of these fails unexpectedly there is a sudden and serious loss of 720MW to the grid.

Most Australian wind turbines in use at present vary in rated capacity from two to five megawatts. So, as an example, should a four megawatt turbine running at 75% capacity fail unexpectedly the output of the wind farm might drop from, say, 60MW to 57MW, a drop of 3MW. Not a big deal. And, of course, if there is battery firming, the battery will kick in an hold the wind farm output constant.

So the truth of generation reliability is the opposite of Mr Hastie's claim. There is very little reliability problem in wind power and major reliability problems associated with fossil fuel generation, especially coal-fired power stations.

Some references on reliability

Reliability of wind turbines

How Long Do Wind Turbines Last? Average Lifespan Explained; Energy Follower, written by Alexis Phillips, last updated 2022/01/14. "Wind turbines have a reliability of 98%."

Unreliability of fossil fuel power stations

Gas and Coal Power Plants: 135 Breakdowns in 2018; The Australia Institute media release dated 2019/02/01.

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Another lie: coral reefs

In an email Mr Hastie sent me (and many others in his electorate) on 8th September 2024 he said that wind farms pulverise coral reefs. Of course he gave no evidence or reference to support that dubious claim (he never does); can any reader inform me of a coral reef anywhere in the world that has been significantly damaged by the building of an offshore wind farm. I don't know of any.

More to the point in the case of the specific proposed wind farm zone that Mr Hastie is opposing is the fact that there are no coral reefs within four hundred kilometres. The nearest coral reefs are around the Abrolhos Islands off the coast of Geraldton.

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Another lie: bird deaths

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In the same email as the one that included the lie about the coral reefs (above) Mr Hastie said that they kill millions of birds each year. This very misleading statement is often repeated by opponents of renewable energy who have low ethical standards. Rather than repeat the refutation here I refer the readers to my specific section on bird deaths and wind turbines.

Here I will confine myself to repeating a sentence from that section: To stop building wind farms would result in far more bird deaths than to continue building them.

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This section added 2024/10/03

Another lie: best thing that's happened, or tearing apart the community?

I used to live in the Mid-North of South Australia. At the time, and possibly still now, Mid-North SA was, with its wind farms, leading the nation in renewable energy developments. There were a few opponents, but only a few and in most cases those who were worried by the ill-informed vocal opponents at the time a wind farm was proposed found that there was nothing of concern once the wind farm was built and operating.

Many people appreciated the jobs and economic opportunities that came with the wind farms. I recall a Snowtown woman who happened to be working on a Lions BBQ with me saying that "the wind farm was the best thing that ever happened to Snowtown". The Snowtown Windfarm was, at the time, one of the biggest in Australia.

Of course Mr Hastie would have no interest in the truth. In his email of 1st October 2024 he wrote that "massive wind and solar projects are tearing apart regional communities across the nation."

There are some ten or so wind farms in the Mid-North of SA. There is not a single community that anyone could honestly say was 'being torn apart" by their wind farm.

See too my page on Northern South Australia's Renewable Energy, on this site.

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What Mr Hastie doesn't say (and apparently doesn't care about)

It is notable that Mr Hastie doesn't mention the possibility of environmental damage from offshore wind farms. With his love for fossil fuels and his apparent lack of concern for the harm that burning them causes we can only suppose that he doesn't care about environmental damage.

I've written about the possible environmental impacts of offshore wind farms elsewhere on these pages.

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This section added 2024/04/25

Mr Hastie's Anzac Day email

Mr Hastie said in an email that he sent out in relation to Anzac Day that those who fought were “Protecting our freedom, our democracy, and our way of life.”

Andrew, if your idea of:

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• our freedom includes a politician feeling free to mislead his constituents;
• our democracy includes politicians who are willing to lie when it suits their selfish aims; and
• our way of life should include dishonest scare campaigns from our politicians;

I really doubt that many who fought in Australia's past conflicts would agree with you.

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This section added 2024/05/01

Email: The 'stunning beauty of our region'

If the wind farms of the proposed offshore wind power zone are built the closest turbines will be 30 kilometres off the coast. People will hardly see them. They certainly will not impact the beauty of the region.

In the same email Mr Hastie implied that development of the wind farm zone would be a threat to our national security, typically without explaining how.

Mr Hastie in a email of 2024/04/30 wrote the ridiculous claim that "The stunning beauty of our region will be damaged and compromised" if the offshore wind turbines are built.

On giving this some more consideration I thought that these claims are so ridiculous that perhaps the email didn't come from Mr Hastie? Perhaps someone is maliciously using his email address in order to discredit him? So I emailed him on his 'aph.gov.au' email address to check. Typically, he did not reply, so we can take it that he did write it.

I'd have to wonder about his opinion of his supporters. Can he have such a low opinion of their intelligence as to think that they would believe this nonsense?

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This section added 2024/05/25

Email: The Israel-Hamas War

In this email that I received in the last day or two Mr Hastie shows that he 'believes' (does anyone other than him know what he truly believes?) all the good is on the Israeli side and all the evil is on the Palestinian side. (This seems to be the official federal Liberal line and Mr Hastie never goes against the official Liberal line - why should he care where the truth is?)

	Where do I stand in this? My desire is for truth, fairness and honesty in all things. I do not excuse Hamas at all, they have largely themselves to blame for the deaths and destruction in Gaza. But neither can I excuse the Israelis.
	The application for arrest warrants I've written more on the strong justification for the arrest warrant applications against Yahya Sinwar and Benjamin Netanyahu and on the balance of culpability between Hamas and the Israelis on another page on this site.

The official figure for the death toll of the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel is a maximum of 1,200. Mr Hastie in his email states "thousands".

In his email Mr Hastie refers to the peaceful pro-Palestinian protests in Australian universities as "student armies encamped in our universities". (Out of curiosity I visited Curtin University on the morning of 2024/05/02, at the time it was reported that protests in support of the Palestinians were happening there, but I could find no sign of any protests. It seems that there was something on that day - see CURTIN STUDENT GAZA SOLIDARITY ENCAMPMENT - but I missed it.)

In his email he contemptuously criticises the International Criminal Court for even allowing the Chief Prosecutor to suggest that the Israeli Prime Minister and Defence Minister should be made to answer for war crimes. Can he really believe that the deaths of over 40,000 Palestinians (as of 2024/07/17), the great majority of them civilians, many of them woman, children and the elderly, and the bombing of schools and hospitals by the Israel Defence forces is a fair, proportional and justifiable response to the deaths of 1,200 Israelis?

Mr Hastie thinks he's above the International Criminal Court

Mr Hastie wrote in his email:

The International Criminal Court The ICC is responsible for "Trying individuals for genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and aggression". Home Top Index "The International Criminal Court (ICC) investigates and, where warranted, tries individuals charged with the gravest crimes of concern to the international community: genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression. As a court of last resort, it seeks to complement, not replace, national Courts."

"I have no faith in the ICC [International Criminal Court]."

This sounds very like something that Vladimir Putin or Benjamin Netanyahu would say after being accused of some criminal act causing a high civilian death toll. Australians should be shocked to hear it from someone with high aspirations in our government. The International Criminal Court is respected by all nations other than those with corrupt governments.

He also wrote:

"Peter Dutton has made it clear that we won’t tolerate Little Sennacheribs shredding our finely woven social cohesion with their imported violence."

(He calls anyone supporting the Palestinians "Little Sennacheribs".) My impression is that the pro-Palestinian protesters in Australia are almost entirely quite reasonably, and certainly peacefully, trying to get more recognition of the injustices that we see being done to the Palestinian people in Gaza.

There is one thing in Mr Hastie's email that I do agree with him on. Like him I'll put it in bold print: We need people of character and moral clarity. It's a pity that Mr Hastie is not one such.

To be sure that the email, that seemed to me quite lacking in justice and balance, did come from Mr Hastie I sent an inquiry to his 'Andrew.hastie.mp@aph.gov.au' email address on 2024/05/25. The address that it came from was 'andrew@andrewhastie.com.au'. He did confirm that it came from him (this was the first time that he gave me an actual direct response to my emails to him).

July 4th, 2024; Pro-Palestine protest at Parliament House, Canberra

Four protesters climbed onto the roof of Parliament House and hung two banners, with the messages:

• "From the river to the sea Palestine will be free" and
  
  
• "War crimes
  Frontier Wars
  Vietnam
  Timor Leste
  West Papua
  Iraq
  Afghanistan
  Palestine"

As far as I've seen, the protesters didn't mention Hamas, yet in an email of the following day Mr Hastie called the protesters "Hamas sympathisers". He said they "smashed through", yet it seems that the only damage was to some pigeon spikes on the top of a fence. He called the banners hateful and said that they supported terror. Ridiculously he implied that the protest endangered our democracy.

Back in March the UN Security Council adopted a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. The Israeli government under Netanyahu will not agree to a ceasefire until it wipes out Hamas, and he don't seem to care how many civilians are killed in the meantime.

Over 40,000 (as of 2024/07/17) Palestinians have been killed in Israel's invasion of Gaza, yet Mr Hastie plainly thinks that these four people have no right to mount a peaceful protest! I can only hope that this man never gets into a position of real power in any future government.

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Why does Mr Hastie really oppose the offshore wind farm zone proposal?

One of the Toora turbines in Victoria Can Mr Hastie really believe that these turbines are ugly? Does he just say that because it suits his anti-sustainable, pro-fossil fuel, stance? I see them as graceful and elegant and as a sign of a more sustainable future.

Everything I've written above shows that Mr Hastie cares little for the truth. As I've written in regard to his scare campaign elsewhere on this page, 'we know that he is lying' and 'he knows we know he is lying'. Consequently the reasons he has given for his opposition seem unlikely to be his real reasons.

So one has to wonder what are his real reasons for opposing the proposed zone? Several possibilities come to mind:

1. The proposal comes from a Labor government, Mr Hastie is a loyal Liberal (to the point of doing everything the party tells him to do, see his voting record in parliament). Does he oppose the wind farm zone simply because he's been told to by the party bosses?
   
   
2. If the wind farm zone is approved and the wind farms are built the fossil fuel industry will suffer big financial losses. Is Mr Hastie concerned that he and his party will loose the very generous backing they now receive from the fossil fuel industries if he does not oppose the wind farm zone?
   
   
3. Is Mr Hastie simply devoted whole-heartedly to the fossil fuel industry? (Is he effectively employed by them?)
   
   
4. Does Mr Hastie really dislike wind farms for some personal reason?

The most likely reasons for Mr Hastie's opposition to the proposal seems to me to be some combination of the first three above.

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Mr Hastie's lies about the proposed changes to the luxury car tax

In a card drop in late June 2024 Mr Hastie claimed that the changes proposed to the existing luxury car tax:

".. will add thousands of dollars to your new ute or family SUV."

Not only does Mr Hastie falsely say the tax applies to all utes and family SUVs, he also implies that this is a new tax. In fact the luxury car tax was introduced by Liberal Prime Minister John Howard in the year 2000 (See the article in Motorama). The Albanese government has proposed changes to it. Quoting from the article in Drive:

"The Federal Government has announced the Luxury Car Tax will undergo a significant change from the 2025-2026 Financial Year which will see many previously-exempt petrol, diesel and hybrid cars hit with the tariffs – despite years of calls from the car industry to scrap the tax entirely.

At present, the Luxury Car Tax (LCT) adds a 33 per cent tariff to each dollar of a car’s price above the threshold – which stands at $76,950 for vehicles with claimed fuel use ratings of more than 7.0 litres per 100km, or $89,332 for ‘fuel-efficient vehicles’ which consume less than 7.0L/100km.

Today, Treasurer Jim Chalmers announced the definition of a ‘fuel-efficient vehicle’ will be tightened to those which consume less than 3.5 litres per 100km from 1 July 2025 – meaning more cars which are above the consumption threshold will be pushed into the lower LCT bracket."

So the truth is that some particularly expensive luxury cars that were not previously subject to the luxury car tax will be taxed in the future.

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Mr Hastie's voting record in parliament

Make your vote count for the things that you believe in. If you vote for a politician who is a member of one of the major parties - Liberal, National or Labor - you are voting for a party machine. If you vote for a community independent you are voting for a person who has a conscience and has the good of your community at heart.

A good parliamentarian will vote for the legislation that he believes to be good legislation. Most parliamentarians in the big parties, including Mr Hastie, vote however their party bosses tell them to vote, whether they think it is good legislation or not.

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This link records Mr Hastie's voting record in parliament - They Vote for You. It notes that "Mr Hastie has never voted against the majority of [his] party since entering parliament" suggesting that whatever the question may be he puts party loyalty above any other consideration. A community independent can vote for what they believe in, they don't have to follow a party line.

Andrew Hastie voted consistently against increasing investment in renewable energy; A page in "They vote for you",

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This section added 2024/03/30

Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn

A hydro-power station that incorporates pumped-hydro energy storage. This one is Tumut 3 hydro power station in the Snowy Mountains. Renewable energy can be combined with energy storage, such as this pumped hydro installation, to allow renewable energy generation around the clock, wether the wind is blowing, the sun is shining, or not.

Solzhenitsyn once wrote, in relation to the Russian government:

"We know they are lying,
they know they are lying,
they know we know they are lying,
we know they know we know they are lying,
but they are still lying."

In relation to Andrew Hastie and the proposed offshore wind farm zone I will modify this a little:

"We know he is lying,
he knows he is lying,
he knows we know he is lying,
we know he knows we know he is lying,
but he is still lying."

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The Russians have to put up with a lying government. We don't have to tolerate lying governments or politicians; we can throw them out.

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This section added 2024/10/06

Truth

In Mr Hastie's email of 2024/10/04 he wrote:

	Marching for the Palestinians The great majority of the people who are marching in protest to the Israeli invasion of Gaza are marching for the Palestinian people who are being killed in tens of thousands by the Israeli military, not for Hamas or Hezbollah.
	Fantasy land? Can any reasonable, well informed person, believe any of this? It seems to me that Mr Hastie is in some sort of fantasy land here.

“We’re facing a civilisational crisis in the West. We’re seeing it play out on our streets in Australia with people marching in support of Hamas and Hezbollah. This hasn’t happened in a vacuum.

For many years now, our education system has been poisoned by moral relativism and identity politics. Our kids are taught that all of life can be reduced to a power struggle. That morality itself is merely a social construct, and a tool of oppression. That history is a binary story of oppressors struggling with the oppressed. We’ve even crossed over into the absurd where academics argue that mathematics is a tool of oppression. So, we shouldn’t be surprised when people insist that 2+2 = 5...

When we stop believing and teaching our values, we find ourselves in a civilisational crisis. Without a true north. That is where we find ourselves today. What’s the way forward? The truth. That’s our weapon. And it’s unassailable.”

Mr Hastie writing about the truth being our weapon! When we consider how loose he has been with the truth; how many times he has intentionally mislead people, and even blatantly lied.

I value the truth very highly indeed. That is perhaps the main reason I despise Mr Hastie.

Can Mr Hastie believe any of what he himself says? Does he just say anything that he thinks might be to his advantage to say at any particular time?

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This section added 2024/03/30

Ethical standards

People like Hastie are an enigma to me. How can he possibly have any self respect?

Democratic values? In an email that I received on 2024/10/11 Mr Hastie listed first under "Here's my vision for how we secure Australia's future"; in bold letters Stand for our Democratic Values. Considering what I have recorded of Mr Hastie's activities on this page one would have to wonder what he thinks our democratic values include and exclude!

I can’t understand how anyone can have such a total lack of ethical standards as to lie, apparently shamelessly, with the aim of holding back essential action on climate change. People like Hastie are condemning future generations, and all life on earth, to sharing a greatly damaged planet. Does he not care about ethical standards at all?

What is there in our lives more important than upholding a high standard of personal ethical behaviour?

I had a lot of respect for my father, who died about 36 years ago. I occasionally wonder how he would feel about what I've done with my life since then. I believe he would be proud of me.

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I wonder whether Mr Hastie ever considers what his father would think of his dishonest attack on the renewable energy that we must have if our children and grandchildren are to inherit a world that is not greatly damaged by climate change?

I have written on another page about how, if we want to behave ethically, we can consider what a respected mentor from our past would think of what we are about to do. Does Mr Hastie have any such respected mentors? If so, does what those mentors would think of his behaviour concern him?

I wonder too, what Mr Hastie would consider to be a successful life? One in which he achieves notoriety and money, or one that he can look back on and be justifiably proud of?

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This section added 2024/09/14

Accountability

On 2024/09/13 Mr Hastie sent an email to those on his list emphasising the need for accountability in the officers of the Australian armed services.

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Surely politicians also have a responsibility to be accountable; to provide justification and evidence for the things that they say and write, and to behave ethically.

Isn't Mr Hastie being hypocritical in wanting accountability in the armed services while misleading and even lying as a political representative of some 110,000 voters? Doesn't being accountable require honesty?

Chief of the Army, Lieutenant-General David Morrison said, “The standard you walk past is the standard you accept." This is applicable to all walks of life, not just the military. As I've written on another page on this site if you see something that is not as it should be, don't just walk by, do something about it. That's why we should all call out the misbehaviour of dishonest politicians like Mr Hastie.

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This section added 2024/03/28

Is Donal Trump a roll model for Mr Hastie?

Six before breakfast Perhaps Mr Hastie and Mr Trump aim to get to the point of thinking up and pretending to believe six lies before breakfast. Apologies to Lewis Carroll who had the Red Queen say "Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."

Many readers will have noticed that Donald Trump’s supporters don’t seem to care how many lies he tells, so long as they like the messages he sends. I wonder if Mr Hastie's supporters feel the same way?

Donald Trump seems to be very popular in the USA in spite of being an habitual liar. I've remarked on my page about Mr Trump that, while we shouldn't be surprised that there are people in this world as despicable as Trump, we have every right to be surprised that so many people are willing to vote for and support such a man.

Perhaps Mr Hastie has noted this and thinks that he can behave the same way in Australia and get away with it. Perhaps he feels that the other Liberals will support his behaviour just as, in the USA, most Republican politicians are supportive of Trump.

How can a man, either Trump or Hastie, live with their consciences while intentionally misleading people, making unfounded claims and lying?

Do we want politicians in Australia who follow the Trump model? I’d hate to see Australian politics go the same way as US politics. Australia can do better than parliamentarians like Mr Hastie. Australia must do better.

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Could Mr Hastie sue me?

Am I concerned that Mr Hastie could sue me for defamation?

No. There are several defences that would apply:

1. Truth: One cannot be sued for telling the truth and I have written nothing but the truth.
2. Public interest: It is in the public interest that Mr Hastie's misleading, false and unethical statements be exposed, especially considering his position as a federal politician.

It is relevant that I have several times informed Mr Hastie of what I have published. He has chosen not to respond.

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Concluding remarks

References and related pages

External sites...

Political

Let's replace Mr Hastie with an honest, progressive, climate aware community independent.

Voices for Forest: "We are a community group from the SW of WA. Our aim is: ensure that the entire Forrest community is heard and understood by the next representative. Our values are our guiding principles: Community, Environment, Respect, Integrity, Positivity and Sustainability."
The present Member of Parliament for Forest is Nola Marino, who, like Mr Hastie, is a Liberal. Forest is the next federal electorate to the south of Canning.

We know politicians lie – but do we care?; The Conversation, 2022/02/14

Why people vote for politicians they know are liars; The Conversation, 2019/12/19

Environmental

Climate change impacts; The Australian Museum. This extensive article goes into impacts on: heat, fire, drought, extreme weather events, sea level rise, coral reefs, biodiversity, communities and human health.

Climate change indicators reached record levels in 2023: World Meteorological Organization

The future will be green or black; an essay by David B Lauterwasser

Australian Marine Spatial Information System: Offshore Renewable Energy Infrastructure. This site provides a little information about declared and proposed offshore renewable areas.

General

Resources for debunking common solar and wind myths; These articles can help you tell fact from fiction

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References and related pages on this site...

Community independent representation in parliament, for a more honest, progressive future

Replace Mr Hastie with an honest, progressive community independent

Politician's responsibilities; many polies are shirking their responsibilities

Vote smart

Don't just walk by, do something. If we see something that is not as it should be and we can do something to make it better, we have a responsibility to try. This applies to many things, including removing bad politicians.

I've written a page on Where should you look for reliable information? and there is a piece written by ChatGPT on judging the reliability of sources elsewhere in these pages. Certainly you are not going to get reliable information from Mr Hastie.

The climate change that Mr Hastie apparently doesn't care about

Peter Dutton, leader of the federal opposition (at the time of writing)

Offshore wind farms

Truth; a concept with which Mr Hastie has little familiarity.

Western Australia's proposed offshore wind farm zone

Wind power in Australia

Wind power problems, alleged problems and objections

Wind power lies

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