Summary:
At the Queensland Labor state conference, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese led a coordinated assault on One Nation, characterising the party’s politics as “dangerous, divisive, and downright dishonest” and calling for hard-right populists to be defeated. Other senior Labor figures echoed that language, with Treasurer Jim Chalmers calling a grouping of Liberals, Nationals and One Nation a “threat to our country and its cohesion” and a “dangerous and divisive coalition of chaos.” Queensland Opposition Leader Steven Miles warned of a “far-right coalition” of the Liberal National Party (LNP) and One Nation. His deputy, Cameron Dick, called an “unholy alliance” of the LNP leadership, Hanson and miner Gina Rinehart a “coalition of chaos” importing “hard far-right politics from overseas.” Further attacks came from ministers who labelled One Nation dangerous, populist and dishonest, and accused it of platforming extremist views.
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, in response, said the Prime Minister and the Treasurer had crossed a line. Telling voters their opponents were dangerous and a threat to the country, she said, invited people to treat them as a threat, and that was how political violence was incited. She pointed to the killing of British politician Ann Widdecombe and to threats already recorded against her. Barnaby Joyce, One Nation’s deputy leader, said Albanese was attacking One Nation’s character rather than its policies, and that such a judgment was being made about 30% of Australia. Hanson also accused the Prime Minister of abusing his power through disproportionate staffing allocations. One Nation receives four personal adviser positions for six MPs, compared with 17 for the Greens’ 11 MPs, a disparity she characterises as the Prime Minister abusing his power to hobble the party.
These events follow One Nation’s victory in the Secret Harbour by-election — a Labor-held seat in Western Australia that the party had kept since 2008 — won with about 39% of first preferences and a 57–43 two-candidate-preferred result. Luke Herdegen is the first One Nation member of that chamber. National polling shows One Nation between 23.5% and 30% on the primary vote, with Labor no longer clearly leading any of the three major polls and the Coalition third in all three.
Detailed Report
1. Albanese and Labor Leaders Attack One Nation at Queensland Conference
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told the Queensland Labor state conference, at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, that hard-right populists were on the march.
“We have a Liberal Party that isn’t liberal, a National Party that isn’t national, and One Nation – whose leader seeks to divide Australians talks Australia down both here and overseas.”
“Across the world hard right populists are on the march. Peddling politics that is dangerous, divisive, and downright dishonest. We simply must defeat them. We owe it to history. We owe it to the nation, and we will defeat them.”
Such parties would “bend any facts,” “peddle misinformation and disinformation,” and “turn Australian against Australian,” he said.
“Parties like One Nation have no serious answers to our problems.”
He recalled One Nation winning 11 Queensland seats in 1998 and losing them “in record time,” and said the party could not govern without the LNP, nor the LNP without them. Labor’s answer, he said, was to defeat “this coalition of chaos” by delivering growth and making the economy work for people.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers, who spoke just before him, said the government had taken “this threat” seriously before the Western Australian by-election and would do so after it. He described “the threat to our country and its cohesion, its people, and our economy” as a “dangerous and divisive coalition of chaos – a three-ring circus of Liberals, Nationals, and One Nation.”
Queensland Opposition Leader Steven Miles, on the Saturday, said the next Queensland election would be “a fight between Labor and a far-right coalition of the LNP and One Nation swapping preferences and hoping to govern together.” He criticised Premier David Crisafulli for saying nothing about One Nation’s “far-right agenda.” In the Queensland parliament in June 2026, Miles had already called on the state to confront “the shameful, race-fuelled hatred that has invaded our political discourse.”
Queensland Labor deputy leader Cameron Dick spoke minutes after Miles.
“Friends, we stand at a crossroads. A fight for the heart of our nation and the heart of Queensland. An unholy alliance is forming — David Crisafulli, Jarrod Bleijie, Pauline Hanson, Gina Rinehart … a coalition of chaos built to entrench the interests of billionaires, importing a brand of hard far-right politics from overseas.”
Labor Assistant Minister Patrick Gorman said on News24 on 31 August that One Nation was “dangerous, populist and dishonest.” Attorney-General Michelle Rowland, the same day, said some of the party’s “elements,” including where they had given “a platform to extremist views,” were dangerous, and that it was also dangerous “to trade on the politics of division.”
2. One Nation Responds: Rhetoric "Incites Political Violence"
Pauline Hanson responded on 31 August. In a post that morning she said the attacks from the Prime Minister and the Treasurer had “become increasingly desperate” and had “crossed a line.”
“Telling Australians that their democratically elected opponents are ‘dangerous’ and a ‘threat to our country’ invites people to treat them as a threat. Words have consequences. That is how political violence is incited.”
She pointed to the murder of former British minister Ann Widdecombe as “warning enough about the dangers of poisonous political rhetoric,” and said Albanese and Chalmers were “pouring petrol” on a debate the Prime Minister had asked the country to cool.
A second post the same morning drew the line she said she would defend:
“I completely support free speech and open debate. These are fundamental parts of our democracy. Where I draw the line is normalising and encouraging potential incitements to violence.”
“When democratically elected parties are described as ‘threats’ and a ‘danger to the country’ by the prime minister and the treasurer, people will take those words seriously.”
At a press conference in Gippsland later that morning she said the incitement ran “through our educational system and a prime minister who should know better than that.” She called him “a pathetic prime minister” who was “not the leader of this nation.” “You don’t go out saying those things, and they’re all scared. They’re scared because now we’ve won a safe Labor seat, and this is worrying them.” Asked whether Albanese was inciting violence, she said: “Yes, he is.” People were “being misled about the truth about One Nation,” she said. “It’s happening constantly all the time in the schools and universities.” She said he should take “full responsibility” for threats against her.
Those threats were already on the Australian record. Undercover footage from student walkouts in August recorded participants calling for Hanson to be shot and killed. The Sydney Morning Herald later reported that her Australian Federal Police detail had risen from two or three officers to as many as a dozen. The same week Hanson posted a photograph she said was taken in Bendigo, showing graffiti that repeated the demand: “Kill Pauline Hanson.”
Barnaby Joyce, One Nation’s deputy leader, told the Herald the Brisbane speech was “not on policy, but on what he believes is a fundamental character malfeasance of One Nation.”
“You can fight us on policy, but you can’t just say we’re evil. Remember when Mr Albanese makes a judgment about One Nation, he’s made a judgment about 30 per cent of Australia.” One Nation, he said, “is the most conservative party in Australia, but it’s not an evil party.”
3. Secret Harbour By-Election: One Nation Wins Safe Labor Seat
The by-election was held on 29 August for Secret Harbour, a Labor-held seat in the Legislative Assembly of Western Australia that the party had kept since 2008. Labor minister Paul Papalia, the sitting member, resigned. One Nation’s Luke Herdegen won on about 39% of first preferences, a swing of about 31 points, and about 57–43 after preferences against Labor’s Georgia Tree. The Liberals finished third on about 17%. Herdegen is the first One Nation member of that chamber.
Rod Caddies, the party’s Western Australian leader, said there were “no safe Labor seats in this state or in this country any more.” Herdegen said the result would send “shock waves across the entire country.”
4. Federal Polls: One Nation at or Near Labor as Coalition Runs Third
Three federal polls in the last week of August illustrate One Nation’s surge. They put the party between 23.5% and 30% on the primary vote, with Labor no longer clearly first and the Coalition third in all three.
Newspoll for The Australian, 24–28 August, put One Nation on 30%, Labor 29%, the Coalition 19% and the Greens 13%. In a three-way preferred-prime-minister question, Albanese led Hanson 46–31, with Opposition Leader Angus Taylor on 23. Redbridge for the Australian Financial Review, the same dates, put Labor on 29, One Nation on 28 and the Coalition on 22. Roy Morgan, 24–30 August, put Labor on 29.5, One Nation on 23.5 and the Coalition on 20.5.
5. Personal Staff Allocation: Hanson's Case Against the PM
The Prime Minister decides how many personal advisers each party receives across the parliament, and One Nation holds four of those positions for its six MPs — against 17 for the Greens' 11. That allocation has not moved as One Nation has grown to six parliamentarians; a gap Hanson says is designed to hobble her party.
Hanson wrote to the Prime Minister in August requesting an increase from four to nine advisers — noting that nine “would still be below the Greens’ ratio” — and stated a February letter requesting the same had gone unanswered. The government’s stated position is that allocations are made “based on a range of considerations,” with no public reply to the August letter on record.
Conclusion
The Brisbane conference put One Nation at the centre of Labor’s argument that hard-right populist politics is dangerous and must be defeated. Hanson said that language invites people to treat her party as a threat, while Joyce said the fight belongs on policy. Those exchanges followed One Nation’s first seat in the Western Australian lower house and federal polls that put the party at or near Labor on the primary vote.