Labor MP Peter Khalil has unleashed on One Nation as Pauline Hanson’s once-minor party leads in the polls. The Assistant Defence Minister on Wednesday said Ms Hanson’s party offered “slogans not solutions” and used hot-button issues to drive support “without doing any real work”.
Khalil fires up over One Nation’s poll surge
Mr Khalil told Sky News’ Afternoon Agenda he was “fired-up” over the issue as he took the “gloves off” in an interview with Chief Election Analyst Tom Connell. “This is just an example of a populist party that is... saying what people want to hear, whipping up division and anger, using the algorithms that you get on social media without doing any real work,” he said. “They don’t do the hard yakka, they don’t do the work to actually do the policy development, it’s all about grievance.”
One Nation leads Sky News and YouGov’s exclusive Pulse poll with 29 per cent of primary voting intention. Labor trails with 26 per cent, while the Coalition remains locked in third place with just 20 per cent of the primary vote.
Connell questions Khalil’s timing
Connell asked if Mr Khalil considered it fair to allow One Nation time to develop their policies, given they won very little of the primary vote at the last election. Mr Khalil indicated he did not. “How long have they been a party, a political party? Same goes with the Greens, same goes with all these minor parties,” he questioned. “They’ve gone far too long without any scrutiny from the media, they get an easy ride. If they’re serious about representing the Australian people in a sense of being a party that is taken seriously, they have an obligation and a responsibility, I would say, to actually do the work. They’ve actually got a substantive record that if anyone had a look at it, anyone held them to account, they would see very clearly who they’re actually supporting and who they are not supporting.”
Sky News Australia last week aired a major policy gaffe from veteran MP Barnaby Joyce, a story which was followed by Australia’s other major media companies. The Sydney Morning Herald this week also reported Ms Hanson’s defence plans would cost Australian taxpayers $400 billion and require conscription.
Khalil accuses Connell of ‘soft defence’
Connell said there would continue to be scrutiny of One Nation in the lead up to the 2028 election. “I’m not saying they don’t need to present policy in detail, I’m just talking about that if that’s still being developed that wouldn’t be totally out of the ordinary given we’re a year from the election when they were absolutely no chance of ever forming government and therefore didn’t have an entire suite of policies,” he said. Mr Khalil accused him of running a “soft defence” for One Nation and asked how long One Nation should be afforded to develop further policies.
“It annoys me because I care about this country, I care about Australia and I’m in the game of politics because I want to serve the country that has given me so much, and I’ve actually done the work,” he said. “If they’re in the game, they need to front up and explain what they are putting forward. They haven’t done that.”
Connell then questioned why Mr Khalil was attacking One Nation with such veracity now. “You’re fired up about them today, is Labor realising the gloves need to come off now and you can’t just ignore One Nation into irrelevance?” he asked. Mr Khalil said he was “fired up” because “people needed to be held to account”.
“We’re hearing a lot of slogans and a lot of sloganeering, if you like. [There’s] a lot of stuff that’s being put out there that if it ever actually hit the reality, the cold reality of the air, and was ever implemented would be disastrous for Australians,” he said.
PM Albanese offers softer dismissal
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese offered a softer dismissal of recent polling. Asked “why” voters were abandoning Labor for One Nation, Mr Albanese rejected the idea they were at all. “Well, you’re assuming that that’s the case,” he said. “Polls - what they do is they state a view at a period of time, not necessarily what people vote.” He said there was a broad dissatisfaction with the political mainstream, but said the frustration was not unique to Australia. “Quite clearly, right around the world... there is some frustration with the system and whether the system is working for people,” he said. “That’s something that we’re very conscious of. It’s not enough to identify an issue. What you’ve got to do is identify a solution.”
He and Ms Hanson went head-to-head at the beginning of June with rival fundraisers. Labor urged voters to “fund the fight” to stop One Nation and donate $27 to the Party through ads on Meta social media platforms since June 1. On Wednesday morning, Ms Hanson launched a competing bid for financial support asking for help to “fire the liar”. Her fundraiser had raked in more than $1 million in “grass-roots” funding by 7pm.
