Andrew Hastie, the Shadow Defence Minister and member for Canning, has received security upgrades at both his home and electorate office after One Nation mounted a political campaign targeting him over his position on Ben Roberts-Smith, according to reporting by the Sydney Morning Herald published on 23 June 2026.

The security measures reflect the level of personal threat assessment attached to the campaign against Hastie. One Nation's targeting of a sitting opposition frontbencher over a position he took on Roberts-Smith — the former SAS corporal who lost a defamation action in 2023 — is a notable escalation in the kind of intra-right pressure politics that has sharpened since the last federal election. Hastie, himself a former SAS soldier, has not retreated. News.com.au reports he characterised his posture as one of non-surrender.

The Roberts-Smith question cuts through the veterans' community in ways that don't map neatly onto standard left-right alignments. For One Nation, backing Roberts-Smith has been a reliable signal to a constituency that views the defamation judgment and the broader Afghanistan inquiry as an establishment stitch-up of a decorated soldier. Hastie, who served in Afghanistan with the SAS and has spoken publicly about accountability within the special forces, represents a direct rebuke of that framing — one that carries credibility precisely because of where he served.

Security upgrades of this kind — physical hardening of a parliamentarian's residence and office — are not routine. They're authorised through the Parliamentary Security Service and the Australian Federal Police's protection framework, and they require a threat assessment that clears a meaningful threshold. That Hastie's situation has met that bar is worth registering on its own terms, separate from the political theatre around it.

Canning, the electorate Hastie holds, sits in Perth's outer south and has been competitive at previous elections, though Hastie has held it securely since winning the 2015 by-election. One Nation running an active campaign against him in his own seat is a resource commitment — corflutes, doorknocking, potentially a well-resourced candidate — rather than just social-media noise. Whether it translates into primary-vote attrition at the next election is a different question, but the security upgrades suggest Hastie's office is not treating the pressure as purely rhetorical.

The political backdrop is not uncomplicated for Hastie. Named regularly in leadership succession discussions within the Liberal Party, he has been one of the more active opposition frontbenchers on the floor of the House. Since the Budget was handed down, he has contributed to the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2026–27 debate on 28 May, spoken to the High Seas Biodiversity Bill 2026 — the domestic enabling legislation required before Australia can ratify the BBNJ treaty — and participated in parliamentary discussion on cyber security for small to medium-sized businesses during the Budget debate on 4 June. He also made remarks related to Repacholi on 3 June. The workload is consistent with someone building a cross-portfolio record.

On the alliance question, Hastie's public record is also relevant context. In April 2025, he warned publicly that Australia's military alliance with the United States faced genuine uncertainty under the Trump administration — a position that diverged from the more reassuring line preferred by some in the Coalition at the time. That willingness to call it as he sees it, whatever the internal optics, is the thread connecting his Roberts-Smith stance to his US alliance commentary and now to his response to One Nation.

The hardening of Hastie's physical security while a minor party campaigns to unseat him is an unusual combination, and it tells you something about the temperature of Australian politics in the outer-suburban and regional electorates where One Nation competes. The SAS-on-SAS dynamic — one former operator holding a position that another's supporters regard as a betrayal — gives this particular contest a charge that generic political rivalries don't carry.

Whether One Nation can make it count in Canning at the ballot box is the actual test. Everything before that is pressure.