Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has admitted the Coalition has regularly failed its supporters and warned that One Nation would bankrupt Australia and cost mortgage holders $20,000 in his clearest attack on Pauline Hanson following suggestions of timidity in his fight against rivals.
Taylor’s attempt to upend dire polling results comes as Tommy Robinson, the far-right Islamophobic agitator whose appearance with Karl Stefanovic spurred Nine to part ways with the broadcaster, claims to have hosted Hanson for a podcast interview.
Hanson’s act of defiance against the political and media class who rebuked Stefanovic places her to the right of Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who has distanced himself from Robinson and accused the anti-Islam extremist and convicted felon of sowing unrest.
In a speech at the Sydney Institute on Thursday, Taylor positioned himself as a leader with a background in business and a belief in capitalism, contrasting with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s “socialism … and managed decline” and Hanson’s similarly big-government approach that would “send us broke” – comparing One Nation to the Greens.
“Many have lost hope. They look left at a government that lies to them. They look right at an opposition that has too many times let them down,” he said, according to a copy of his speech.
“I understand why some Australians think the way out is to blow the place up. But to those who feel like lighting a match, believe me when I say, that a moment of satisfaction isn’t worth the eternity of pain that will follow.”
After months of trailing Hanson’s party, Taylor argues that One Nation was an unserious outfit with a “grab bag of poorly defined, contradictory, and constantly changing positions”. He suggested it could not be trusted because Hanson alone ran the party with an iron fist.
“Their longest-serving MP thinks the United States is the ‘world’s greatest terrorist organisation’, and their newest MP is already voting with the Greens and teals,” he said.
On economics, Taylor claimed conservative voters who want smaller government would get the opposite from One Nation. He claimed Hanson’s top four financial commitments, including defence spending of 5 per cent of GDP, cost about a trillion dollars over a decade, with paltry savings on the public sector to offset the spending. He estimated spending would cause the RBA to raise rates by 3 percentage points, equating to $20,000 a year in extra repayments for the average new mortgage holder.
“The root cause of our economic crisis is an explosion in government. Deep down, their true instincts are toward big government interventionism. But with even less of a concern than Labor about how to make the numbers add up,” he said.
“Their only alternative is deeper cuts to essential services – pensions and Medicare chief among them.”
The warning on cuts to services mirrors the arguments ordinarily run by Labor against the Coalition, including at the last election. It underscores the avenues for attack against One Nation created by Hanson’s hardline press club speech in which she flagged winding back workers’ rights and parental leave. She has since insisted she supports government-funded parental leave.
The fight for ascendancy on the right of Australian politics has run in tandem with a brawl over Labor’s budget, in which it broke election pledges on tax concessions for investors. Labor lost political support amid a backlash from the business sector, but last month passed its budget bills and clawed back its polling ascendancy.
Taylor has struggled to run a steady argument against the budget and recruit affected industries to back the Coalition. Yet he boldly predicted the pain from the budget would be a slow burn as voters saw the economic consequences.
“I believe Labor’s budget will ultimately be its downfall,” he said.
Taylor claimed Labor had created a spending “Leviathan” off the back of the Coalition’s COVID-era spending hike, saying the government had “initiated a radical restructuring of Australian society” by making the public service and publicly funded care sector bigger for its own political benefit.
“Away from free enterprise and towards a command-and-control system,” he said. “It’s a political program to centralise and consolidate power. It’s a stain on this Labor government that should disqualify it from re-election.”
Taylor was trapped in a debate on his support for multiculturalism last month after Hanson told the press club she wanted Australia to be monocultural. Liberal MPs watched with interest on Wednesday when Andrew Hastie, another leadership contender, argued for a “third way” on ABC’s 7.30, saying Hanson’s vision was divisive and Labor’s version of multiculturalism was devoid of shared values.
Far from adopting more caution after a slight polling dip, Hanson is in London to meet Farage, and also met with Robinson. A tweet from the white supremacist, who has been implicated in this year’s anti-immigrant riots in Belfast, shows him sitting with Hanson in armchairs facing one another, and reads: “Had a fascinating time chatting to one of the bravest lady’s [sic] on the planet … Hopefully the next leader of her nation”.
“Podcast coming soon.”
Hanson posted the Stefanovic-Robinson interview on her own social media after the former Channel Nine host pulled it down, denouncing the backlash as censorship. Nine owns this masthead.
Hanson will soon meet under-siege Reform leader Nigel Farage, who has publicly criticised Robinson for “stirring up hatred” and repeatedly ruled out allowing Robinson to join his party.
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Paul Sakkal is Chief Political Correspondent. He previously covered Victorian politics and won a Walkley award and the 2025 Press Gallery Journalist of the Year. Contact him securely on Signal @paulsakkal.14.Connect via X or email.
