Malcolm Turnbull says entering a preference deal with One Nation doesn’t mean the Liberal party supports One Nation, as a new poll shows a majority of voters disapprove of a deal between the Liberals and Pauline Hanson’s party in Western Australia.



Turnbull told Bloomberg TV on Tuesday that preference allocations were political calculations designed to maximise the performance of the Liberal party, not value judgments.

Asked about the Liberal party’s decision in WA to preference One Nation ahead of its alliance partner, the Nationals, in some areas, the prime minister said: “Well it’s important to understand ... that in most parts of Australia we have a compulsory preferential voting system, where you have to number a square next to each candidate on the ballot paper so there will always be the allocation of preferences.

“But just because preferences are directed to a party doesn’t mean that you support them – quite the contrary.”

His comments come as the latest Guardian Essential poll says 38% of people disapprove of the deal between the Liberal party and One Nation in WA, while 29% approve. But, among Liberal voters, 43% approved of the arrangement and 25% disapproved.

The deal in the west has also been criticised by the federal Nationals leader, Barnaby Joyce. In an interview with Guardian Australia last week, Joyce warned that anti-Islamic statements, such as the ones espoused by One Nation, could harm Australian trade deals.

He said he would give instructions not to preference Hanson’s party before the Liberal party in federal seats.

The deal in WA parts ways with John Howard’s dictum in 2001 that One Nation should be put last on Liberal how-to-vote cards and some Liberal moderates are concerned preferencing One Nation will help entrench Hanson in the Australian political mainstream, creating a long-term problem for the Coalition parties.

The Australian on Tuesday reported that One Nation’s Queensland leader, Steve Dickson, wanted positions in the ministry in return for supporting the LNP in the state election, which is expected later this year.

Dickson, who recently defected from the LNP to lead One Nation in Queensland, said “policy and positions’’ would be a condition of support for an LNP minority government in the state.

One Nation’s strong performance in recent polls suggests the party will do well in Queensland. A recent poll had the party on track to better its result of 11 seats in the 1998 state election.

Howard last week abandoned his own 2001 instruction to put Hanson last, saying he fully understood the decision in Western Australia for the state election.

“Everyone changes in 16 years,” he said. “Trying to understand that decision and decisions that were taken by various iterations of the Liberal party 15 or 16 years ago is ridiculous.

“This is a different set of circumstances. I think it’s entirely sensible that the party has done what’s it’s done.”

Since the deal was struck in WA, a number of federal ministers have lined up in support, with some advancing arguments that One Nation is more sophisticated than it was 20 years ago.