Overview

• Andrew Hastie posted an Instagram video lamenting the loss of Australian car-making and urging a manufacturing push with a 'put Australians first' message.
• Anonymous Liberal MPs questioned the cost and production of the 'well produced' clip in The Australian, prompting Hastie to call them 'nameless cowards' and 'muppets'.
• Hastie said the video was filmed by his 'competent, patriotic Gen Z' staffers, rejecting suggestions of improper funding.
• Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Nationals senator Matt Canavan publicly backed Hastie and criticised colleagues who brief without putting their names to quotes.
• Opposition whip Aaron Violi urged colleagues to handle disputes privately, as reporting cast Hastie as a leading conservative alternative to Sussan Ley without an immediate leadership challenge.