How Labor is plotting to tackle its Pauline problem as One Nation gains support from frustrated voters

There are no obvious signs of panic just yet inside the Albanese government over One Nation’s soaring rise, but slowly the Labor party machine is working out its strategy to take on the populist right-wing political movement.

Over the past few months, the government has been content to watch the damage wrought on its coalition opponents, including One Nation’s recruitment of former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce and its decisive win in the recent Farrer by-election.

ALP strategists, led by National Secretary Paul Erickson, are said to be now road-testing lines to attack Pauline Hanson’s party, but the government’s negative assault on her movement has not yet started.

For now, the thinking is that One Nation will probably be best placed to inflict damage on itself, as demonstrated by this week’s internal confusion about the party’s housing policy and Mr Joyce’s “girls are not as good as boys” remark to an anti-abortion rally.

During an appearance at Australia’s Economic Outlook summit in Sydney on Friday the Prime Minister said he wouldn’t criticise people thinking about voting for One Nation, acknowledging “frustration” for many in the population.

“I’m critical of the leaders of that political movement (One Nation), but I’m never critical of voters. Voters are sending a message . . . that they don’t think that the economy is working for them, and they don’t want to work for the economy.”

Three weeks on from the Albanese government’s budget of broken promises on negative gearing and capital gains tax, Labor is highly attuned to the widespread grumpiness in the electorate.

Many inside Labor place the blame for voter discontent on high interest rates and rising cost of living, exacerbated by the continuing war in the Middle East — a factor Anthony Albanese again highlighted in his economic address on Friday defending the Budget.

“We do not view global uncertainty as an excuse to delay — we see it as a reason to act.” “They say the best time to fix the roof is when the sun is shining — but the work we have to do cannot wait for blue skies.” Mr Albanese’s ministers and backbenchers are also adamant that any backlash they’re receiving in their electorates about the budget is in line with what they anticipated, and that the level of hostility has not been as intense as what media headlines suggest.

One Labor MP tells The Nightly, he’s received “several dozen” complaints or queries about the government’s budget measure to reduce the higher private health insurance rebate for older people, but otherwise very little negative feedback on other tax changes.

Later this year all sides of politics will get another indication of One Nation’s true standing among Australian voters, when Victoria heads to the polls for an election pitting an unpopular state Labor government against a divided Coalition opposition.

A more accurate assessment of Pauline Hanson’s standing is likely to emerge in the New South Wales contest set for March next year, where a far more popular Labor government is expected to be easily returned.

The Premier of that state, Chris Minns, has already taken pot shots at the Albanese government’s unpopular Budget measures, as he moves to distance his own team from its federal ALP colleagues.

And expect more “product differentiation” in the months leading up to polling day in NSW, as the Minns government also grapples with how to handle One Nation in a state where Pauline Hanson has already enjoyed some parliamentary success.