Sue Roberts-Smith, the mother of disgraced former soldier Ben Roberts-Smith, has sent an email to at least two dozen Coalition MPs accusing Andrew Hastie of being 'not fit' to lead the Liberal Party. The email, sent early on Wednesday, included a 39-page dossier about Hastie, who testified against her son in his failed defamation case.
In the email, seen by Guardian Australia, Roberts-Smith told MPs that after Jacinta Nampijinpa Price's sacking from the frontbench, 'it is time you had a good hard look at Andrew Hastie'. She claimed Hastie had 'demonstrated ... that he is not fit to be the leader of the Liberal Party'. The dossier contained dozens of articles about Roberts-Smith's alleged war crimes and his legal battles.
Roberts-Smith accused Hastie of doing 'everything he can to assist' the journalists who broke the story about her son. Hastie, a former SAS captain who served alongside Roberts-Smith, gave evidence in the defamation trial, stating it was a 'fairly well-established rumour' that Roberts-Smith had kicked an unarmed person off a cliff. The court ultimately ruled that Roberts-Smith had committed war crimes.
Hastie declined to comment on the email. The dossier included news stories about Hastie dating back to 2010, covering topics such as his concerns about China, his leadership ambitions, and his abstention from the same-sex marriage vote. Roberts-Smith warned MPs that the attachments showed 'what harm Andrew Hastie has done to the Liberal Party and to others including our family'.
The email comes amid renewed speculation about Hastie's leadership ambitions after he threatened to quit the frontbench over net-zero policy. Hastie downplayed the speculation, saying most colleagues did not support his anti-net-zero stance and that his relationship with leader Sussan Ley was 'perfectly fine'.
