{"id":729983,"date":"2026-06-11T16:25:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T16:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/729983\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T16:25:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T16:25:12","slug":"pauline-hanson-is-becoming-a-problem-for-labor-but-her-focus-on-battlers-could-be-her-kryptonite-one-nation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/729983\/","title":{"rendered":"Pauline Hanson is becoming a problem for Labor \u2013 but her focus on battlers could be her kryptonite | One Nation"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was mid-January when Anthony Albanese<\/a> publicly admitted his \u201cworry\u201d about the rise of One Nation.<\/p>\n

The prime minister\u2019s concern was not the political risk to himself or to Labor but rather the threat Pauline Hanson<\/a> posed to the stability of Australia\u2019s two-party system.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a believer in mainstream politics and that the parties of government, it\u2019s important. [It has] served this country pretty well,\u201d Albanese said in an interview on Kiis FM, after a January newspoll showed One Nation<\/a> ahead of the Coalition for the first time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt [One Nation] is a reality that the Coalition in particular have to deal with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Five months on, the One Nation threat is also a reality Labor must deal with, after several national opinion polls ranked Hanson\u2019s rightwing populist party the most popular in the country.<\/p>\n

One Nation this week launched a dedicated fundraising drive to \u201cfire the liar\u201d and Hanson has declared Labor-held seats are firmly on the party\u2019s radar. The party claimed to have collected more than $2m in donations<\/a> this week alone, off the back of broken promises in the federal budget.<\/p>\n

Albanese has acknowledged reforms to negative gearing, capital gains tax and trusts were in part designed to counter One Nation and the myriad frustrations driving voters to embrace rightwing populism.<\/p>\n

Labor and its trade union allies have also shifted the focus of their rhetorical attacks, targeting Hanson as though she \u2013 rather than Angus Taylor<\/a> \u2013 is the opposition leader.<\/p>\n

For now, none of it appears to be working, leaving some insiders to question what \u2013 if anything \u2013 will.<\/p>\n

\u2018Anger and slogans\u2019<\/p>\n

Each morning Labor MPs are provided \u201ctalking points\u201d to align their messaging on the important issues of the day.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, a new topic was added to the list: One Nation.<\/p>\n

The suggested lines were entirely consistent with the language Albanese has used in the past week, including openly conceding that Australians are frustrated with an economy that \u201cisn\u2019t working for them\u201d.<\/p>\n

But the fact that the guidance has been issued at all speaks to an acceptance that One Nation is a problem that must be confronted. An appeal from Labor head office for donations to fight One Nation offered further proof of its new priorities.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n

Some Labor MPs and advisers are concerned the government has been flat-footed and lacking a clear, coherent strategy to combat an unconventional political opponent that appears impervious to scandal and traditional forms of accountability.<\/p>\n

The talking points instruct MPs to describe One Nation as a party that offers \u201canger\u201d and \u201cslogans\u201d rather than \u201csolutions\u201d and \u201canswers\u201d.<\/p>\n

It encourages them to call out Hanson\u2019s \u201cappalling record\u201d on wages and job security to undermine her self-styled image as a champion of the working class.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust like their mates in the Liberal party \u2013 they have consistently opposed cost-of-living relief for Australians,\u201d the talking points, seen by Guardian Australia, state.<\/p>\n

The talking points make no mention of immigration or Hanson\u2019s long history of anti-migration rhetoric, indicating Labor wants to steer clear of the politically sensitive topic.<\/p>\n

Hanson\u2019s \u2018kryptonite\u2019<\/p>\n

The focus on wages is viewed as the most effective way of appealing to what Kos Samaras describes as \u201cred One Nation\u201d voters \u2013 the cohort of working-class Labor supporters prepared to switch to Hanson.<\/p>\n

Samaras, a former Labor strategist now with Redbridge Group, says Hanson\u2019s \u201ckryptonite\u201d when it comes to political messaging would be a hypothetical 35-year-old nurse warning the public that One Nation will hurt their pay packet.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe [Hanson] could be pulled apart pretty quickly the minute you are able to convince them that she\u2019s not one of them, she\u2019s in fact just another politician,\u201d Samaras says.<\/p>\n

There are signs the strategy is already being pursued by the trade union movement, which now treats One Nation as its main political opponent and biggest threat to working people.<\/p>\n

After the Fair Work Commission this month awarded a 4.75% pay to minimum wage earners<\/a>, the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) secretary, Sally McManus, fronted a social media video condemning Hanson\u2019s opposition to it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are Aussie battlers who\u2019ve been doing it tough, struggling and just scraping through, and who stood up for them and their families? Not Pauline Hanson. She argued against these increases,\u201d McManus says in the clip.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne Nation backs the bosses over Aussie battlers every single time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drawing attention to Hanson\u2019s close ties to Australia\u2019s wealthiest boss \u2013 mining magnate Gina Rinehart<\/a> \u2013 is another tactic Labor MPs such as Jim Chalmers and Clare O\u2019Neil<\/a> are using in an attempt to cast her as a hypocrite.<\/p>\n

But Samaras says that line doesn\u2019t cut through because voters view Hanson\u2019s gifts from Rinehart in the same light as MPs who benefit from taxpayer-funded travel perks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey [the voters] really don\u2019t care because the response is \u2018well, all of you get your Comcars and your travel perks,\u201d he said, referencing the rolling controversies surrounding Anika Wells\u2019s use of travel entitlements.<\/p>\n

Some Labor MPs believe that the Coalition \u201ccreated the One Nation beast\u201d and therefore the Liberals and Nationals are best placed to slay it.<\/p>\n

They say Labor should remain focused on its core strengths of wages, tax cuts and boosting Medicare, casting itself as the only party offering practical measures. Albanese has adopted this approach this week, pointing to free Tafe courses, cheaper medicines and industrial relations changes.<\/p>\n

One Nation\u2019s ability to attract both Labor and Coalition voters indicates the Hanson phenomenon is not driven by support for particular political ideologies.<\/p>\n

Rather, political strategists and researchers view it as a case of \u201coutsiders\u201d revolting against the \u201cinsiders\u201d, which includes major political parties and big corporations.<\/p>\n

Senior Labor MPs believe a major task in the months ahead is to remind voters that Hanson is not the \u201coutsider\u201d she purports to be, but a politician who first entered federal parliament more than 30 years ago.<\/p>\n

Peter Lewis, the executive director of Essential Media, says incumbency means Labor faces the challenge of being central to the very system that people are turning against.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Labor\u2019s] challenge is to demonstrate how it is using power to support the interests of those who are losing faith,\u201d Lewis says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is where landing their changes to the way capital is taxed is critical, as is their Future Made in Australia program to rebuild Australian manufacturing leading to real evidence that government can still work for people.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat will be the government\u2019s best inoculation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018I don\u2019t think Labor has anything to fear\u2019<\/p>\n

Don Farrell is considered one of Labor\u2019s savviest minds, a political veteran who has witnessed the rise and demise of enough insurgent parties to confidently predict where this one might end.<\/p>\n

Asked this week about the threat One Nation posed to Labor, the trade minister was definitive.<\/p>\n

\u201cPopulist parties in this country come and go, they rise and they fall. I don\u2019t think Labor has anything to fear from One Nation,\u201d Farrell said.<\/p>\n

Other Labor MPs might not be as dismissive as Farrell but most aren\u2019t feeling genuinely anxious about Hanson \u2013 at least not yet.<\/p>\n

Much of that is down to the fact that the next federal election is not scheduled until 2028, giving Labor time to develop the policies and the messages to counter One Nation\u2019s rise.<\/p>\n

Party insiders draw confidence from the experience of the last federal election, where Labor won 94 seats just months after trailing Peter Dutton\u2019s Coalition in the polls.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest risk is over-reacting this far out from an election,\u201d says one Labor MP.<\/p>\n

November\u2019s Victorian election will be a testing ground for some of the attack lines, according to MPs from the state. Hanson has talked up the party\u2019s prospects in a fight between an old an unpopular Labor government and a Liberal opposition with major internal divisions.<\/p>\n

Some suburban Labor MPs say a fight on policy details, including service delivery and economic management, should be a feature between now and the federal election.<\/p>\n

\u201cPointing out the inconsistencies in their policies, if you can call them that, helps. Some voters will think twice when it actually comes down to who runs the economy,\u201d one said.<\/p>\n

But while the surge in interest in One Nation isn\u2019t showing signs of abating yet, and Hanson is scheduled to address the National Press Club in Canberra next week, Labor figures suggest the immediate risk to the government is being overstated.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy would we engage now, two years out and on her terms? It\u2019s a distraction,\u201d one MP said. \u201cShe craves attention and we have a job running the country.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was mid-January when Anthony Albanese publicly admitted his \u201cworry\u201d about the rise of One Nation. The prime…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":729984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-729983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=729983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/729984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=729983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=729983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=729983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}