Mundine says parties such as Pauline Hanson’s One Nation must be judged on their policies ‘as a whole’ in federal election campaign

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Liberal Warren Mundine has backed the Nationals leader, Michael McCormack, for saying National party policies are “aligned with One Nation”, arguing that even the policies of a “crazy party” must be judged “as a whole”.

Mundine made the comments to Guardian Australia defending the junior Coalition partner’s preference deal, despite the Liberals preferencing One Nation below Labor.

Mundine, a former ALP national president, is contesting the marginal electorate of Gilmore, south of Sydney. He is up against Grant Schultz, an independent he replaced on the Liberal ticket, Labor’s Fiona Phillips and National Katrina Hodgkinson.

Mundine downplayed tensions within the Coalition despite former Liberal MP for Gilmore Joanna Gash and outgoing Liberal MP Ann Sudmalis backing Hodgkinson.

“Those things don’t surprise me,” Mundine said, arguing the endorsements were a byproduct of “some of the infighting within the Liberal groups down here” before he was picked by Scott Morrison to be the candidate over Schultz.

Mundine said the Coalition agreement allowed a Liberal or National to compete against the other partner when a sitting MP retires, and the parties were swapping their second preferences.

Asked about McCormack’s comments that National party policies are “aligned with One Nation” – which the deputy prime minister defended at the National Press Club on Tuesday – Mundine replied: “Ah, look, a lot of their policy stuff – that’s true.

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“But this is where I disagree on a number of issues. For instance, when [One Nation NSW leader] Mark Latham … now I [came] out very strongly against Mark Latham in his comments about doing DNA testing on Aboriginals and that,” he said.

“Every party – whether they be a crazy party or a more moderate party – there are some policies that are the same but you’ve gotta look at the policies as a whole.”

In March, Scott Morrison announced that the Liberal party would preference One Nation lower than Labor following the extraordinary revelations in March about the far-right party’s pursuit of foreign donations in exchange for efforts to water down Australia’s gun laws.

Mundine also defended the image circulating on social media of his campaign bus suggesting the Coalition will “increase the aged pension”.

On Tuesday Morrison attempted to explain away the slogan by noting that the age pension is raised twice a year through regular indexation.

Amy Remeikis (@AmyRemeikis) Increase the age pension? (The post has been taken down) pic.twitter.com/KVuikqf8PY

Mundine said: “All those designs come from head office … that bus was inside a garage, and it hadn’t even been out on the road. We changed that skin when someone picked it up.”

Mundine said the bus now said to vote Liberal for a “stronger economy, supporting retirees and local jobs for local people”.

Asked if the bus indicated the Coalition would announce more benefits for pensioners, Mundine said the government had “announcements every day right up to the election that will be focused on this area”, neither ruling out nor confirming a pension rise.

Gilmore has a big retiree community, so “anything to do with pensions, anything to do with health, with the NDIS they’re magnified down here because of that factor”, he said.

At politics in the pub in the town of Huskisson on Tuesday, Phillips blasted Mundine and Hodgkinson, accusing them of “peddling lies” by describing Labor’s dividend imputation policy as a retiree tax and remarking they “are not from this electorate”.

Mundine said it was “quite insulting” to him as an Aboriginal man, citing the fact his mother’s family is from Moruya, Broulee and Batemans Bay.

He said Phillips had shown “no understanding of Aboriginal culture” or kinship structures where “it’s your lineage that ties you to the country”.

“I’m a member of the south coast native title group, I have voting rights within that group due to my ancestry.”