One Nation leader accuses Coalition of falling into Labor’s ‘trap’ by isolating her party

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Pauline Hanson has hit back at Scott Morrison’s insistence the Coalition will not do a preference deal with One Nation, claiming Liberal and National MPs who fear they will lose their seat are “disgusted” by the comments and are seeking her party’s preferences.

On Wednesday Morrison refused to firm up his commitment by agreeing to put One Nation last, instead noting preferences would be decided after nominations closed and that the claim of no deals applied equally to Labor and the Greens.

Queensland’s LNP MPs, including Llew O’Brien and Scott Buchholz, have urged the party to put the Greens, not One Nation, last, the New Daily reported.

On Tuesday Morrison said “there will be no preference deals with One Nation”. Labor noted that the same was said before the 2017 Queensland state election but the LNP had nevertheless preferenced One Nation ahead of Labor in 50 of 58 seats.

On Wednesday Hanson said “a couple of Liberal party sitting members” had contacted her and were “very disgusted with the prime minister’s comments”. “So let’s just see what happens when it gets closer to election time,” she told Radio National.

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Hanson refused to name the MPs, but said “they’ve been talking to One Nation for the last year and a half, two years, about preference deals”.

“What do you think happened in Western Australia and in the Queensland state elections? They know they can’t win their seats without One Nation’s preferences.”

In 2017 the Liberals preferenced One Nation in the Western Australian election in a deal orchestrated by cabinet ministers Michaelia Cash and Mathias Cormann.

Hanson accused the Coalition of falling “into the trap of the Labor party” by attempting to isolate One Nation.

“I’m not an extremist,” she said.

In this term of parliament Hanson has called for an end to Muslim migration, suggested Australia is being “swamped by Muslims” and wore a burqa into the Senate to call for the Muslim garment to be banned.

Hanson said Labor and the Greens opposed Coalition policies most of the time but the government could work with “like-minded” parties on the crossbench.

“What I find amazing about this is the prime minister has accepted my vote on the floor of parliament quite readily,” she said. “He’s needed my vote … to have his legislation passed.

“I’ve worked extremely well with the ministers and the prime minister and the former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull [on] the legislation by the Coalition government – they’ve been very good to work with.”

Asked if she would retaliate against Labor for putting One Nation last, Hanson said voters should “select what order you want”, suggesting the minor party will run open tickets without directing preferences to either major party.

On Wednesday Morrison clarified his remarks by noting that the Coalition did not do preference deals with One Nation, Labor or the Greens, leaving room for state branches to determine the order on how-to-vote cards after nominations close.

The trade minister Simon Birmingham, now a leading moderate in the party, told ABC Radio that he expected “extremists” would be put last on Liberal how-to-vote cards, but declined to clarify whether One Nation should be put last.

Asked if Fraser Anning and One Nation would rank behind Labor, he replied: “Well I trust that we will be putting those of extremist positions at the bottom of the ticket and it’s just a case of seeing which order you put the extremists in.”

O’Brien told the New Daily he “wouldn’t rule out putting the Greens last”, citing their economic and drug policies as a cause for concern.

Buchholz reportedly said that if asked by the state secretary, he would say the “greater risk to my electorate is the Greens”.

“As far as preferencing, I would put the Greens last,” he said. “And I think historically that’s what we do.”

Labor shows no sign of dropping the issue, with Shorten on Wednesday afternoon reiterating his call to Morrison to put One Nation at the bottom of any how-to-vote card.

“For too long people have been too quiet on this and so I say again today – this is a test of Mr Morrison’s leadership,” he said.

“Unless the two mainstream political movements of this country say enough is enough, time is up on the extremists, then they will continue to percolate, they will keep crawling out of the swamp of hatred which all too often some of their policies live in.”