Shadow defence minister Andrew Hastie says close combat roles in the Australian Defence Force (ADF) would be open to women under a Coalition government but stood by a 2018 remark where he said the positions should be “exclusively male”.

The Liberal Party was recently forced to disendorse Benjamin Britton as its candidate for the NSW South Coast seat of Whitlam after it was revealed he said the ADF “need to remove females from combat corps” to “fix” defence on a podcast in July.

The remarks bore a resemblance to a resurfaced comment Hastie made during a Sky News interview in 2018, when he said: “My personal view is the fighting DNA of a close combat unit is best preserved when it is exclusively male.”

Hastie, who has been noticeably absent until now during the federal election campaign, was forced to clarify the Coalition’s stance at a press conference alongside Opposition Leader Peter Dutton this afternoon.

“The Coalition policy is that all combat roles are open to women. It’s been our long-standing position,” he said.

“I’ve been in this role for almost five years, 18 months as the assistant minister for defence, three years now as the shadow minister for defence, and our Coalition policy is that all combat roles are open to women.

“We have one standard. All Australians, regardless of your background, race, sexuality, gender, religion, every single role in the ADF is open to you.”

But the shadow defence minister — who served in the ADF for 12 years, was an SAS captain and deployed to Afghanistan, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific — said he stood by the 2018 remark.

“I did say it and I’m not going to disown who I was seven years ago,” he said. 

“When I think about some of the things I had to do in a closed combat unit up in Bindoon… live fire drills, where you practice man down, very aerobically intensive, you need fine motor skills, you are firing live rounds.

“I remember picking up an 85kg mate… and my legs buckling, now I did that in training but I worked with men who did that under fire in combat for a fallen mate.

“I am not going to resile from what I have said in the past.

“You want honesty and integrity from politicians. I said what I said.”

Defence Minister Richard Marles earlier this month declared it would be “untenable to have a defence minister in Australia who feels that women should not be able to participate in combat roles”.

Women have been allowed to serve in all defence combat and combat-support positions since January 2013. 

Liberals dump Britton, endorse new candidate

Britton, who campaigned for Whitlam on his defence experience, appeared on a podcast with right-wing host Joel Jammal in July, before his preselection in December, and said defence personnel were at the “worst level it’s ever been” due to “lowering of standards, in particular to allow females in combat roles”.

He said the ADF needed to “remove females from combat corps” to “fix” defence.

”Their hips are being destroyed because they can’t cope with the carrying of the heavy loads and the heavy impacts that’s required for doing combat-related jobs,” he said.

“The concept of diversity and equity, and these woke Marxist ideologies, young women are being put on the altar and sacrificed for these ideologies.

“Why would you want to send your beautiful women, your females, the ones that are the backbone of your society, your society only exists because of women, why would you want to sacrifice them in war, on the altar?”

Britton has since been disendorsed as the Liberal candidate for Whitlam and replaced with plumbing business owner and former state member Nathaniel Smith. 

Britton has accused the party factions of orchestrating a “witch hunt” against him, but Dutton said there were several more issues that prompted his replacement.

“There were a number of issues, not just those that have been made public, in relation to the candidate, and we took a decision to replace Ben as the candidate,” he said at a press conference earlier this month.

“That’s the decision we’ve taken. I wish him well.”

Dutton was also pushed into confirming his support for women in ADF combat roles. 

“You saw my record as defence minister in relation to women serving in any role that they wanted to serve in the Australian Defence Force, and that would be the position under any government that I led,” he said. 

“Andrew Hastie’s view is the same as mine, and that’s the position.”