MARK RILEY: Pauline Hanson’s hit list shows One Nation is going all out as ‘fire the liar!’ takes off
MARK RILEY: Hanson is aiming to blast through the metropolitan Pauline-proof fence that has long stopped her posing a credible threat to the major parties.
Pauline Hanson’s “fire the liar!” campaign has really caught fire among her supporter base.
According to the fundraising website, pledges passed the $1.8 million mark within 24 hours of going live on Wednesday.
Senator Hanson asked for amounts starting at $29. That was an obvious dig at Labor, which had launched its own campaign this week seeking pledges of $27 for a fighting fund to tackle One Nation.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.Senator Hanson’s response? Whatever you can do, I can do better.
And apparently she can.
Labor strategists question the accuracy of One Nation’s claimed total and whether it is really money in the bank or pledges yet fulfilled.
But they concede it does show that there is a growing number of One Nation supporters who are willing to put their money where their mouths are.
Senator Hanson told a throng of supporters in Perth on Wednesday night to great whoops of delight that she would use that money to “help take our country back”.
She then surprised many by saying that she would do that by targeting Labor seats, not the Coalition’s.
Senator Hanson rattled off a list of prime Labor targets, led by Energy Minister Chris Bowen and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke.
The crowd roared its approval.
The response was more muted when she named her third target: “Adam Giles!”
She meant Andrew Giles, the left-wing Minister for Skills and close friend of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, not Adam Giles — the former Country Liberal Party chief minister of the Northern Territory and now close Hanson supporter and CEO of One Nation-backer Gina Rinehart’s agricultural, cattle and clothing businesses.
We all make mistakes.
Her broader point, though, deserves some examination because doing so reveals the real challenge Senator Hanson faces if she is to turn her current polling momentum into a credible threat to power at the next election.
One Nation is polling well. Incredibly well. But the great majority of its support is in rural and regional seats.
Its support in the cities is much less pronounced — and that is where the majority of seats reside, including Bowen’s, Burke’s and Andrew Giles’.
Senator Hanson has recently allowed herself to muse publicly about the prospect of her becoming prime minister.
But to do that, she would have to find a way to break through the Pauline-proof fence around those metropolitan seats where her staunchly conservative views don’t resonate in the way they do in the regions and on the peri-urban fringes.
That geographic divide largely explains why One Nation is biting so deeply into the Coalition’s first-preference support and only taking a nibble at Labor’s.
The South Australian election showed that while One Nation’s vote reached the mid-30s in rural areas it was contained to about 11 per cent in most urban seats.
And it explains why Liberal conservative Tony Pasin floated the idea of a peace deal with One Nation this week — an idea that reeks of self-interest and self-protection.
Mr Pasin holds the rural South Australian seat of Barker.
One Nation’s Jennifer Troeth had only a small increase in her primary vote against him at the 2025 Federal election. Mr Pasin polled 48 per cent of primaries and Troeth just eight.
But One Nation’s support has soared in areas like Barker since then.
Ms Troeth ran in the overlapping seat of Chaffey at the State election in March, earning a 24 per cent swing to One Nation and a primary vote of 34 per cent to run second to Liberal Tim Whetstone.
Mr Pasin publicly floated the idea of a Coalition deal with One Nation to protect sitting members like himself.
Despite being one of Angus Taylor’s key numbers men, Mr Pasin saw his idea immediately shot down by his leader.
“We have no plan to carve up seats. We won’t be doing that,” Mr Taylor said.
But Mr Taylor is talking up a preference-sharing arrangement with One Nation in the hope of saving some of those seats, like Mr Pasin’s, that are at risk of falling to One Nation.
Anthony Albanese has mocked Mr Taylor for trying to “out-One Nation One Nation” by becoming “the Liberal One National Party.”
But Labor should not feel too complacent. The “Fire the liar” campaign and Senator Hanson’s declared hit list shows that she is now determined to find a way through the Pauline-proof fence and plunder the ALP base.
Mark Riley is the Seven Network’s political editor
