‘Fight Labor’: Libs urge unity after Hastie resignation

The Liberals are still dealing with Andrew Hastie's resignation from the front bench. Photo: AAP
Rogue Liberal MP Andrew Hastie has been rebuked by a first-term MP after quitting, with calls for unity mounting as the party deals with the fallout.
As Liberal MPs gathered for the first time since Hastie resigned from the front bench last Friday to allow him to speak more freely on immigration, Victorian backbencher Mary Aldred warned the party could lose further seats if infighting continued.
“This is how we become like the Victorians,” the Monash MP reportedly said.
The much-maligned Victorian division of the Liberal Party is beset by internal fighting and has held government for a single term since 1996.
Aldred reportedly expressed disappointment with Hastie’s resignation, telling MPs she came to parliament to “fight Labor” and not each other.
The internal divisions within the Liberals and the resignation of Hastie were not brought up during a joint Coalition party room meeting before parliament sat on Tuesday.
Liberal senator Michaelia Cash said the party needed to get back to business after the turmoil.
“There is nothing worse than politicians focusing on themselves, the Australian people, they hate that,” she told Nine’s Today program.
“I know where my fight is. My fight is with the Albanese government. It is a bad government.”
While the Coalition is still reviewing its policies, Liberal senator Andrew Bragg said a cohesive and united agenda was needed.
“We need to have very clear and ambitious housing policies. We’ve got to get the show run on energy and then there’s the tax and the other business regulation and productivity measures that we need to have,” he told ABC Radio on Tuesday.
“Those are the things that we need to make sure we have ready to go to the next election if we are to end the fragmentation of the centre right, which is not in Australia’s interests.”
Liberal MP Dan Tehan, who is leading a review into the Coalition’s energy policy, told colleagues a push to repeal the moratorium on nuclear energy was being considered.
As parliament resumed, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told Labor colleagues implementing the domestic agenda was front and centre following his recent visit to the US, Britain and the UAE.
Labor will introduce laws to force employers to pay employee superannuation at the same time as their salaries and to list the far-right extremist network Terrorgram as a terrorist organisation under the criminal code.
Laws allowing foreign state entities to be listed as state sponsors of terrorism will also be introduced.
It follows the expulsion of Iran’s ambassador to Australia after revelations the nation’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps directed at least two attacks on the Jewish community in Australia.
The Coalition flagged plans to introduce laws enforcing mandatory minimum sentences for paedophiles convicted of Commonwealth child exploitation offences.
The bill comes after a case in which a man was sentenced to four years and nine months in jail, with a non-parole period of 2½ years.
The man sexually abused his five-year-old daughter on at least 19 occasions and made 77 child abuse material files.
The offender later transitioned to become a woman and is serving the sentence in a female prison.
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National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
-AAP
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