Anthony Albanese rebrands conservatives ‘Liberal One Nationals’ as Labor ramps up attack populist right-wing
Anthony Albanese has ruled out ‘drawing a distinction’ between citizenship status of Australians and as he ramps up attack on populist right-wing over controversial migration policies.
Anthony Albanese has ruled out “drawing a distinction” between citizenship status of Australians and launched an attack on migration policies by the conservative side of politics which he rebranded “Liberal One Nationals”.
The Prime Minister on Sunday insisted without foreign workers Australia’s health and aged care system would collapse but One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has reiterated her commitment to end what she labels “mass migration”.
His criticisms come after One Nation announced a controversial housing policy which would force non-citizens to divest their properties to make way for Aussies and the Liberals unveiled a plan to cut non-citizens from health and disability welfare.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.“This is the divisive route that the Liberal One Nationals want us to go down,” the PM said at an urgent care clinic in Caloundra, Queensland.
“One thing that you won’t hear from me is drawing a distinction between Australians and migrants who are permanent residents. Permanent residents are people who’ve made a commitment to Australia.”
“Go into an aged care facility. Go into a hospital here, see what happens if all the permanent residents go. If somehow we throw out all the permanent residents, don’t allow them to have a house, don’t allow them to have any access to services.”
Mr Albanese’s criticisms comes after he warned against “populism and opportunism without answers” at an economic forum in Sydney last week and The Nightly revealed on Friday that ALP strategists were road-testing lines to attack Pauline Hanson’s party.
Senator Hanson on Sunday had fired back with her own jabs on Sunday, labelling government’s proposed changes to Capital Gains Tax as “actually socialism at its best”.
She insisted it wasn’t tax incentives behind Australia’s housing woes but a “lack of housing is due to mass migration”.
“They’ve allowed to come into the country,” she told reporters in Brisbane on Sunday.
Under One Nation’s housing policy — which was fumbled by Barnby Joyce and NSW Senator Sean Bell in media appearances last week — the party would give “a temporary visa holder or a foreign citizen residing overseas” two years to sell their property to an Australian.
It came after Angus Taylor used his May 2026 Federal Budget Reply speech to outline a major Coalition social security access policy shift to axe 17 different welfare programs and services for non-citizens.
“To treat them differently is something that began with Angus Taylor’s rather extraordinary and divisive speech that he gave on his Budget Reply,” Mr Albanese said.
“Now we have a different Coalition of people of the Liberal One Nationalists — where it is increasingly difficult to see a difference between what the Liberal or National parties are saying and what the One Nation party are saying.”
Shadow Treasurer Tim Wilson on Sunday defended the Coalition’s proposal which he reminded people was grandfathered, so wouldn’t discriminate against have lived in Australia for decades but haven’t yet become citizens.
He sought to separate the Coalition’s action on migration and One Nation’s, instead labelling the minor party’s proposal “frankly, quite shocking”.
“It’s quite clear that if One Nation’s agenda is simply to evict people from their homes and expel them out of the country who are engaging in law-abiding activity and lawful property owners, it says something really distressing about their objectives,” Mr Wilson said.
“But no one should be surprised, but it seems like a very violent way to deal with people who are here paying taxes.”
Mr Albanese dismissed questioning on Sunday about whether an expert-predicted fall in house prices would constitute success for Labor.
Under the changes unveiled in May, the Albanese government announced it will wind back negative gearing and scrap the 50 per cent Capital Gains Tax discount in favour of an indexed model and 30 per cent minimum.
“You’ll get ten different views. We take the view of Treasury and the Treasury modelling in the Budget,” he said.
