Andrew Hastie has criticized unnamed colleagues in his party, calling them "nameless cowards" and "muppets" after they questioned a social media post he made about the decline of Australia's car manufacturing industry. Hastie, who has expressed ambitions to lead the Liberal Party, shared his thoughts on Instagram regarding the loss of domestic car production.

In his post, he lamented, "We used to make complex things in this country … Both the Liberals and Labor have let us down in the past by letting the car industry disappear." He concluded with a call to action, stating, "It's time to put Australians first," echoing the sentiment of former U.S. President Donald Trump's "America First" slogan.

The closure of Holden and Ford's production facilities in Australia over a decade ago occurred without government bailouts, despite the companies receiving substantial subsidies from various administrations.

Following his video post, some anonymous Liberal colleagues raised concerns about how the "well produced" video was funded, questioning the modest salaries of parliamentarians. In response, Hastie took to social media again, stating, "Nameless cowards briefing in the paper. It was filmed by competent, patriotic Gen Z staffers you muppets."

Hastie's remarks come on the heels of recent internal conflicts within the Coalition, particularly following Jacinta Nampijinpa Price's controversial comments that led to her removal from the frontbench. Liberal MP Aaron Violi commented on the situation during an interview, suggesting that party disputes should be handled privately.

"What I would say as a general comment is all conversations between colleagues should be face to face and private. The Australian public wants us to be a strong, united opposition holding this bad government to account," Violi said. He added that the party needs to engage in serious reflection after the significant losses experienced in the recent elections. "Clearly, when we go through such a devastating result as we did on May 3rd, there is a lot of soul searching to do," he noted.