Nationals chief whip flags possible retirement with Pauline Hanson a prospect of running in her seat

The National Party’s chief whip has indicated she could retire ahead of the next election as Pauline Hanson weighs up which winnable Lower House seat to run in.

Three MPs from the National, Liberal and Labor parties are staring down the prospect of the poll ascendent One Nation leader running against them in their own backyard as the senator looks for a berth in the House of Representatives.

The situation for the Coalition is so dire Opposition Leader Angus Taylor slapped down a call from one of his Liberal frontbenchers to reach a non-compete arrangement with One Nation, which raised more than $2 million just a day after starting a drive for small donations.

Michelle Landry, the 63-year-old Nationals member for the central Queensland seat of Capricornia covering Rockhampton, has hinted Nationals leader Senator Matt Canavan, who also lives in her area, may run in her seat held since 2013 - possibly against Senator Hanson.

“I’m sure that he would love to do that,” she told The Nightly.

“Once I retire, when I do decide to do that, it’s then open for pre-selection - the LNP will open that up and anyone who is interested in running for the seat goes up for a preselection where the party decides who’s going to run.

“I haven’t made up my mind what I’m going to do yet and so we’ve got two years to go.”

Ms Landry, a member of Parliamentary Friends of the ABC, regards Capricornia as the kind of seat which Senator Hanson could run in, expecting the Coalition to preference One Nation rather than doing a deal where they don’t run against each other.

The One Nation leader, 72, owns a property at Cooee Bay near Yeppoon, within that electorate.

“They’re certainly saying they’re going to be running someone against me, there’s been all this talk that Pauline’s going to run in Capricornia,” Ms Landry said from Japan with a delegation of Federal MPs.

“It’s open for anyone to run in any seat.”

Senator Canavan has yet to rule out an attempt to win Capricornia, which would make him the first party leader to attempt a switch from the Senate to the House of Representatives since 1990 when Janine Haines led the Australian Democrats.

“I am focused on removing this terrible government that has seen our living standards go backwards at a record rate,” he said.

“We will compete against Labor everywhere to do that. I welcome all parties running. Competition is a good thing.

“I am not focused on what seat I run for. I will just do what the team needs, so we take our country back.”

Senator Hanson could also potentially run in the Labor-held seat of Blair covering Ipswich, south-west of Brisbane, where she previously served on the local council and ran a fish-and-chips shop before being elected as a disendorsed Liberal candidate for Oxley in 1996 over her comments on Aboriginal welfare.

The local Labor member Shayne Neumann said he was taking the threat of her running seriously.

“Whoever the Liberal Party, the Greens political party or One Nation picks, that’s the candidate - we face every candidate and take every candidate seriously,” he said.

Senator Hanson, however, lives just outside Ipswich in the Scenic Rim town of Coleyville in the Liberal-held seat of Wright, held by Scott Buchholz.

Mr Taylor has ruled out non-compete arrangements with One Nation after it raised more than $2 million just a day after launching a fundraising drive to target Labor MPs.

Opposition frontbencher Tony Pasin, a conservative Liberal MP from regional South Australia, told The Australian his party in his home state could agree to avoid running against each other so they could direct their resources against sitting Labor MPs.

“We should work hand-in-glove to defeat Labor,” Mr Pasin said.

“We should work together to identify which seats are more appropriately targeted by a One Nation candidate or a Liberal candidate.”

His vast electorate of Barker overlaps with the State seats of Hammond and MacKillop that switched from the Liberal Party to One Nation at South Australia’s March election, as there was an 11 per cent swing to One Nation in the previously safe Liberal seat of Chaffey.

“Senator Hanson has been on the record saying she is willing to work with the Coalition parties to fight the Albanese Labor government,” a spokesman for Senator Hanson said.

“One Nation notes the Member for Barker’s comments while also noting the Federal seat of Barker encompasses the South Australian state seats of Hammond and MacKillop, which were won by One Nation candidates Robert Roylance and Jason Virgo at the recent state election, as well as Chaffey and Mount Gambier where One Nation candidates achieved large positive swings.”

Mr Taylor has immediately slapped down that non-competition idea, with polls showing he is in danger of losing to One Nation in his own outer south-west Sydney electorate of Hume.

“No, there’s no plan to carve up seats,” he told the ABC on Thursday. “We won’t be doing that.

“What we will be doing is focusing on a Labor Government that’s taking this country in the wrong direction, with higher taxes, with less houses, with immigration that has not been in line with our housing supply, and with an energy system that is broken, and will be our focus, it won’t be carving up seats.”

One Nation’s Fire The Liar! fundraising campaign had already raised more than $2m by early Thursday afternoon, only a day after launching on Wednesday, targeting Labor over its broken promises on negative gearing and capital gains tax changes, high immigration and ISIS brides.

They have mocked Athony Albanese’s call for Labor supporters to donate $27 to hold off the One Nation threat, with Senator Hanson’s party vowing its minimum ask of $29 would fund billboards, TV and radio ads if donations flowed in by June 30.

Mr Albanese said Mr Pasin’s call for a non-compete arrangement with One Nation showed the Liberal and National parties had given up.

“That says it all about the way that the once mainstream Liberal Party has become just a fringe party, almost giving up two years before an election is held,” he told reporters in Sydney.

But he downplayed the prospect of One Nation winning metropolitan seats, after the party promised to target the likes of Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen and Immigration Minister Tony Burke, both in south-west Sydney.

“We’ll continue to campaign against the three right-wing parties,” Mr Albanese said.