Former supporters of Liberal MP Andrew Hastie have expressed their disgust at the Liberal leadership aspirant’s response to criticism for voting in favour of Labor’s “hate speech” bill last week.
In a form letter email reply, the MP for Canning in Western Australia, claimed Labor had the numbers to pass the legislation anyway, and said his vote was to support colleague Jonathon Duniam, who he claimed helped stop Labor making a deal with the Greens.
“To be clear, the PM already had the numbers to get this legislation through, and that’s because Labor has a massive majority in the House of Reps and the Senate,” he wrote.
But voters pointed out that the email contained false statements, as Labor does not have a Senate majority and the Greens rejected a deal, and many rejected his reasoning and said he should have taken a stand on the issue, seeing as he promised to oppose the bill just days earlier.
This is a really interesting response from Andrew Hastie
It was sent to a constituent who criticized Hastie’s decision to back the Hate Speech Laws, which he describes as a “rotten situation”. The explanation is:
1. Labor had the numbers to push it through anyway
2. The… https://t.co/dGA8hoF3zC
— Lisa (@Lisa9Sophia) January 24, 2026
I read him the Riot Act, and got exactly the same form letter. pic.twitter.com/ss8TWzaOJz
— Daniel Jones 🇦🇺 (@DanielJonesAus) January 24, 2026
“His statements are misleading. Labor do not have a majority in the Senate and the Greens were not going to do a deal. What he is saying is ‘Plenty of my Lib mates strongly backed the Bill and if I voted No, I would have lost any chance of the leadership’,” wrote one Australian.
“The Greens stated they were not going to support the Hate Speech side of the bill and actually stood by their word. Can’t say the same for the Liberals,” another pointed out.
“Hastie is a sell out. Labor only had the numbers in the lower house. They only had the numbers in the upper house as the Greens weren’t going to support the bill, even if they tried negotiating it,” said former Libertarian candidate Elvis Sinosic.
“Even if the Greens negotiated the bill would’ve been unenforceable with all their demands. Heck, if the Libs started negotiations and pulled out at the last moment, there’d be no time to negotiate with the Greens as Labor were rushing the bill. There are many other outcomes that could’ve been achieved without supporting the bill.”
Another popular response read: “Fact is, by supporting any form of these new laws, the Liberal Party deprived Australians of a legitimate opportunity to target Labor and the Greens for these heinous legislative oppressions against Australia’s foundational values and the constitution.”
One woman who said she still supported Mr Hastie and sparked the discussion, wrote: “In my world view on principle Hastie should have voted NO or at least abstained. But there you have it, what’s done is done, we need to move forward.”
Andrew Hastie isn’t taking the feedback well from the Australian people over his stance to support the Hate Crime/Speech Legislation.
He tries to back up his reasoning by stipulating it was the ‘lesser of 2 evils’ and by even going further
“Purity is for keyboard warriors &… pic.twitter.com/nED0znbGRX
— Mickamious (@MickamiousG) January 21, 2026
The email came after Mr Hastie responded to thousands of angry comments on social media with accusing them of being “emotionally incontinent” and “keyboard warriors”, sparking further backlash.
Mr Hastie is among two candidates most likely to challenge for party leadership with Sussan Ley under pressure as a result of the collapse of the Coalition, triggered by the Nationals’ refusal to vote for the “hate speech” laws, which experts have warned will chill free speech, are at risk of abuse, and unconstitutional.
The other frontrunner, Angus Taylor, did not vote as he was not in Australia, nor did fellow conservative Senator Jacinta Price, who claimed she planned to vote against the bill but missed the call because of a “issue with the system”.
Header image: Left, Andrew Hastie in a video after the vote. Right, the form letter email sent to supporters (X).
