Ambitious Andrew Hastie wants to lead Liberal Party’s ‘battle of ideas’ for now

Andrew Hastie has confessed he has a desire to lead the Liberal party in future, only hours after Sussan Ley won a party room vote to become Opposition Leader.

Mr Hastie told the Curtin’s Cast podcast that he decided against running for the leadership in the wake of the Coalition’s devastating election defeat, because of his young family.

“I’d be foolish to say I don’t have a desire to lead, I do have a desire to lead,” he said.

“But the timing was all out for personal reasons. A really important thing in politics is to know where you stand and I came to that conclusion very quickly.”

Mr Hastie’s three children are aged nine, seven and three.

“I’ll never get those years back, I’ve got a long commute,” he said.

Instead, the 42 year old told John Curtin Research Centre executive director Nick Dyrenfurth and RedBridge Group pollster Kos Samaras that he wants to lead the battle of ideas.

“Leadership is going to come in many forms over the next three years,” he said.

“Sussan Ley has just made history as the first female leader of the Liberal Party. That’s a really important role, but leadership can’t be confined to just the position.

“We’ve also got to lead in the battle of ideas as well. And I think that’s where I want to make a contribution.”

The day after the Federal election, Mr Hastie told The West Australian that he would “drive change” within the party as part of a post-election post-mortem.

“The Liberal Party has traditionally been a party for all Australians,” he said.

“We need to build a big tent and we need to win back the hearts of all Australians, it doesn’t matter where you live.

“I’m someone who believes that we should have a party that fights for families, that fights to get young Australians into homes and a party that delivers better education for our kids, because education is how you rise in this country regardless of where you come from.

“That’s what I’m focused on and that’s what I want our party to focused on.”