Labor and Liberal politicians in fiery clash as One Nation raises millions in snap fundraiser

One Nation has called in an auditor to verify its multi-million dollar fundraising campaign after coming under scrutiny from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

The party said it raised more than $2.7 million in under two days through its “Fire The Liar” campaign aimed at the PM.

WATCH VIDEO ABOVE: Labor and Liberals debate One Nation’s effect

One Nation claimed 28,000 people donated in the first 24 hours alone, however Albanese threw doubt on the fundraising figures, questioning whether party leader Pauline Hanson really raised the money.

“Did she though? Did she?” he said at a press conference in Sydney on Thursday.

Senator Hanson defended the fundraising campaign, claiming she would be “destroyed” if she were found to be lying about it.

“What evidence is there? Why would I call out the liar, ‘fire the liar’, then go and do something like that myself? It would destroy me,” she said.

The campaign was started in backlash to Albanese’s call for Labor supporters to make a $10 to $27 donation to help fight the rise of One Nation.

“Albo thinks $27 buys him the right to silence us, we think Australians deserve a real choice,” the campaign reads, with One Nation later reporting the average donation received was $59.

Hanson took to social media on Thursday evening to declare the fundraising site and money were “ridgy didge”, posting an audit document appearing to be produced by AI Strategy Consulting.

“I am satisfied that the fundraising total calculation currently includes only successfully received and validated donation payments,” software engineer Daryl Monnink wrote in his audit report.

The audit was carried out by reviewing the website’s source code, inspecting live databases and viewing the end-to-end donation process alongside Peter Arvoll, who built the site, Monnink said.

Health Minister Mark Butler downplayed the significance of the fundraiser, suggesting it would “probably pale in comparison to the money that One Nation receives from a billionaire like Gina Reinhart”.

“At the end of the day, these online fundraising campaigns are pretty common,” Butler said on Sunrise.

He argued the real story was “the renegotiation of the anti-Labor coalition” into a new three-party arrangement made up of the Liberal Party, National Party and One Nation.

“At the end of the day what we’re seeing here is a remake of the Coalition with some new faces but the same agenda,” Butler said.

Deputy Liberal Leader Jane Hume said her colleagues were also experiencing a fundraising surge after Labor announced the federal budget last month, with one telling her he’d raised more money since the budget than in the entire previous year.

“No wonder Australians are angry. Anthony Albanese has lied to them, directly to their face,” Hume said.

“You are poorer now today than you were four years ago because of the decisions that this Labor government have made.”

When pressed on whether the Coalition would preference One Nation, Senator Hume claimed it was “not on the cards”, saying her party never discusses preferences before an election is called.

The latest Newspoll shows One Nation, now the party with the largest primary vote in the country, poses an existential threat to the Coalition, whose vote has collapsed to 18 per cent.

The political stoush comes as the Senate prepares for a two-day inquiry into the government’s budget, which has been criticised as insufficient time to hear from critics of what Albanese himself called “the biggest changes to taxes in a generation”.

- With AAP