Andrew Hastie

On election day, Hastie won 55.26% of votes under the two-party-preferred system, defeating Labor candidate Matt Keogh, becoming the 10th Federal Member for Canning.

He joined the government benches of Malcolm Turnbull who, coincidentally, had become Prime Minister of Australia in the week of the by-election.

Andrew William Hastie (born 30 September 1982) is an Australian politician, and a former military officer, serving as the Shadow Minister for Defence since 2022.

Representing the people of Canning, a semi-urban region on the south coast of Western Australia, he is a senior member of the Liberal Party.

From year 5 he attended The Scots College in Sydney, completing his Higher School Certificate in 2000.

Intending to become a journalist, Hastie began a Bachelor of Arts in History, Politics and Philosophy at the Kensington Campus of University of New South Wales in 2001.

The 9/11 terrorist attacks, which killed the daughter of his primary school teacher, prompted Hastie to change plans.

Hastie began his military service as a reservist in the University of New South Wales Regiment in 2001.

He completed his second year at the Kensington Campus, then transferred to UNSW Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra the following year, finishing his bachelor's degree in 2004.

He took an honours year in 2005; where his final thesis examined Charles Bean's official history of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.

Hastie moved on to officer training at Royal Military College, Duntroon in 2006, where he would meet his future mentors John Anderson and Rear-Admiral James Goldrick.

He received his commissioned as a lieutenant after graduating from Duntroon, in December 2006.

In 2007, Hastie completed the George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs U.S. Foreign Policy Summer Program in Washington, D.C.

His first posting was to the 2nd Cavalry Regiment of the Royal Australian Armoured Corps, based in Palmerston, Northern Territory in 2007.

Hastie took command of a troop of Australian Light Armoured Vehicles in 2008.

He then led the troop on operations in Afghanistan as part of Mentoring Task Force Two, at the start of the fighting season in May 2009, concluding in February 2010.

On returning to Australia, Hastie moved to Perth to prepare for the "brutal" Selection course for the Special Air Service Regiment, which ran between July and August 2010.

Of the 130 soldiers who began the course, Hastie was one of 30 who completed it.

After a further 16-month Reinforcement Cycle, he was formally accepted into the Regiment, being assigned to 1 Squadron, SASR.

He first deployed with the unit in May 2012 to Port Moresby, supporting the Papua New Guinea Defence Force for that nation's general election.

Now a Captain in special forces, Hastie returned to Afghanistan a second and third time.

In October 2012 he observed Australian operations in Syachow in Uruzgan Province.

Then, from February to July 2013, he deployed to Afghanistan as a troop commander with Special Operations Task Group Rotation XIX, largely targeting Taliban forces in partnership with other Afghan forces.

On this third deployment, Hastie had command of Special Forces during a battle in Zabul; and it was here a member of the troop severed the hands of deceased Taliban soldiers, ostensibly to conduct biometric testing.

Regardless, Hastie ordered this to cease, and the incident was reported to ADF command.

An inquiry later found troops were trained in biometrics to identify combatants, which included the collection of body parts, though there was no explicit instruction to do so.

At the conclusion of the inquiry, both soldier and troop commander were cleared of wrongdoing.

Following the Fall of Mosul in Iraq, Hastie was deployed to the Middle East.

Hastie was made an Operations Officer with Operation Gallant Phoenix based in Jordan, carrying out intelligence operations against ISIL.

He resigned from the ADF in August 2015, so as to announce his candidacy for the 2015 Canning by-election.

Hastie was first elected to Parliament in 2015.

Following the death of local MP Don Randall, the seat of Canning became vacant, which triggered the 2015 Canning by-election.

After winning the pre-selection contest for the Liberal Party, Hastie launched his campaign, with support from Mathias Cormann and Julie Bishop, but was met with media criticism about the "severed hands" incident and his family's religious beliefs.

He has since been re-elected in the 2016, 2019 and 2022 federal elections.

Hastie was Chair of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security from 2017 to 2020, rejoining the committee in 2022.

Prior to politics, he was a troop commander in the Special Air Service Regiment.

Hastie was born in Wangaratta to Sue, a primary school teacher for children with special needs, and Peter, who had started a church in that country town.

At age 5, he and his family moved to Sydney when his father became the pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Ashfield, as it launched its first Chinese-speaking congregation.

He began his Primary education at Ashbury Public School.

He has served in federal government as the Assistant Minister for Defence, from 2020 to 2022.