Moderate MPs in Australia’s centre-right Coalition government will confront an additional challenge from the right-wing conservative One Nation party after it announced that it would preference the centre-left Labor opposition in five key marginal seats.
Pauline Hanson, national leader of the party, revealed on April 28, that in its “first shot across the bow” One Nation would preference the Labor Party over the incumbent Liberal Party in Bass in Tasmania (held by Bridget Archer), Indi (Helen Haines) and Goldstein (Tim Wilson) in Melbourne, North Sydney (Trent Zimmerman), and Sturt in Adelaide (James Stevens).
Many of the seats are held by slim margins by the Coalition, with North Sydney and Goldstein facing additional pressure from “teal independent” candidates funded by the Climate 200 group—backed by billionaire Simon Holmes à Court—who are pushing for more policies to deal with climate change.
The move is also significant due to the traditional ideological alignment between One Nation and the Liberal-National Coalition; however, Hanson revealed on Sky News Australia that the Coalition’s decision to preference the Jacqui Lambie Network in Tasmania over her party spurred her into action.
“Jackie Lambie hates their guts and will not work with them,” she said on April 28. “She votes most of the time with Labor and the Greens, and yet they’re preferencing her above One Nation who has tried to work constructively.”
“I have to stand my ground because (Prime Minister Scott) Morrison at the last election put One Nation last behind the Labor and the Greens. Why didn’t anyone say something about that?” she added.
“I am doing Scott Morrison’s job for him—getting rid of left-leaning Liberals destroying the conservative party.”
Hanson said One Nation would preference the Coalition in other seats to help balance out any losses in the upcoming May election—notably in the coal mining seat of Hunter in New South Wales (NSW).
One Nation polled above 10 percent in 16 electorates at the last election, with 14 of those in Queensland and two in NSW. Two-thirds of preferences from One Nation also flowed to the Coalition.
The party, which had the fourth-highest Senate vote in 2019, has drawn much support from disenchanted Coalition and Labor voters.
Both major parties have struggled to bridge the gap between a splintering voter base with pressure to adopt progressive causes such as climate change and gender diversity—which can conflict with the interests of their traditional voter base.
However, the National party leader Barnaby Joyce-who is also the deputy prime minister in the Coalition government—said negotiations over preferences with One Nation were ongoing in other areas.
“Preference deals are inherently important. We rely on One Nation preferences in areas, and certainly, the Liberal Party relies on us to give them the numbers to be the government,” he told reporters on April 29.
Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie said it was the case of “the pot calling the kettle black.”
“When you are a mainlander and trying to run a campaign down here, it makes it very difficult,” Lambie told the Nine Network. “It’s only a two-horse race down here. Pauline has just woken up to that, and it’s hit her hard.”
The campaign comes as the federal government shelved its Religious Discrimination Bill, which would have allowed faith-based schools to teach content and employ staff on the basis of faith.
The Bill faced resistance from several Liberal MPs including Archer, Zimmerman, Fiona Martin in Reid, Katie Allen in Higgins, and Dave Sharma in Wentworth.
