ANDREW GREENE: Why One Nation’s win in Secret Harbour has Albanese government seriously rattled

“Parties like One Nation have no serious answers to our problems,” the Prime Minister declared as the shockwaves from Labor’s historic weekend by-election loss in the West Australian seat of Secret Harbour reverberated throughout his Government.

Anthony Albanese’s swipe was reminiscent of his infamous 2012 speech when he was caught plagiarising Hollywood movie The American President by saying: “In Australia we have serious challenges to solve, and we need serious people to solve them . . .”.

But this time the PM must grapple with the “serious” problem of working out just how to counter One Nation’s rising popularity, as the populist party celebrates snatching a State seat which overlaps with Labor-held territory in the Federal Parliament.

At a time when the Albanese Government is struggling with a sluggish economy and voters remain grumpy with high interest rates and fuel prices driven by the Middle East war, Government insiders acknowledge it is not an easy threat to deal with.

On Monday a series of Labor Government frontbenchers continued to back the PM’s warning that Pauline Hanson’s party was “dangerous”, prompting the Queensland Senator to accuse Anthony Albanese of inciting political violence against her.

Appearing in Victoria, where One Nation is hoping to win more seats during November’s State election, Senator Hanson said she had received “that many death threats” for her work, which she argued “never happened in a country like this before”.

The One Nation leader was also asked whether she thought the Prime Minister was inciting violence after she accused Mr Albanese, in social media posts, of fuelling the risk of political violence with his comments about her party.

“Yes, he is,” Senator Hanson told reporters. “(Mr Albanese) has never called anyone else out as being dangerous and a lot of people are in fear of what they don’t understand.

“They are being misled about the truth about One Nation. It’s happening constantly all the time in the schools and universities,” Senator Hanson said, pointing to the recent anti-One Nation school walkout in South Australia.

“The incitement is happening in our educational system and (by) our Prime Minister who should know better than that.”

The tit-for-tat squabble between Pauline Hanson and Labor has overshadowed a much more serious debate inside the Government which has been rattled by the scale of One Nation’s win.

“It was a pretty blunt result, and the people of Secret Harbor made up their mind,” the Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister, and WA Labor MP, Patrick Gorman said on Monday.

“I respect the decision that the people of Secret Harbour made, it was a pretty brutal result, and we’ve been, for my WA Labor colleagues, pretty up front about that,” he told News24.

Privately his WA colleagues say they’re concerned about several other seats including Pearce, Brand, Hasluck, and Bullwinkel, that could potentially fall to One Nation when the next Federal election is due to be held in 2028.

“The real threat is in Perth’s southern corridor — the outer metropolitan seats where families are starting to feel the pinch and there’s just a general sense of anger against incumbent parties that has been building for some time,” another Labor MP says.

“By-election contests don’t tell you everything about how a general election will pan out but they do always give warning signs to governments about what things need to be properly addressed.”

Senior Albanese Government figures insist local factors also can’t be ignored as the WA Labor party begins its forensic analysis into how it lost the seat of Secret Harbour for the first time.

At the same time others in Labor who are more critical of the Prime Minister’s standing say they were happy he chose to avoid any campaign visits to the seat given his growing unpopularity in the electorate.

As well as studying One Nation’s performance in Secret Harbour, Albanese Government strategists will have the chance to closely watch how the populist party performs in Victoria’s State election later this year and in New South Wales next year.

Last week while seated next to New South Wales Premier Chris Minns for a National Cabinet meeting in Sydney, Mr Albanese declared he’d be “working hard to make sure he stays the Premier after March next year”.

Those inside the New South Wales Premier’s inner circle believe it would be more helpful if the Prime Minister stayed well away from next year’s State election campaign, as they too look to fight off a One Nation surge.