Reporting on the
:
And now for the politics: the far-right One Nation party, which is currently riding high in the polls largely but not exclusively owing to disillusionment with the centre-right Liberal party, has thrown its rhetorical support behind Roberts-Smith and his woke, un-Australian critics. Conversely, another former SASR veteran of Afghanistan, Andrew Hastie, is currently Deputy Leader of the Liberal party. In Roberts-Smith's previous defamation case, Hastie was among those who were called to testify against him, though I don't believe he was a key witness. It's possible that he may be called to testify again in this upcoming criminal trial. Hastie was among those contending to succeed the recently deposed Sussan Lee as leader of the Liberal party; though he lost the bid to current leader Angus Taylor, it's clear that he still harbours ambitions of leadership. Hastie's
following the conclusion of Roberts-Smith's defamation trial in 2023 are perhaps useful background.