One Nation can be defanged by some truth-telling. But only one other major party’s doing that

On Wednesday, Pauline Hanson and her party pulled off one of the most audacious stunts in recent political history. A few days after Labor appealed to supporters for donations to combat One Nation, the crossbench party – currently enjoying a moment on the political centre stage after three decades on the fringes – launched an attack ad and fundraising appeal of its own.

“Fire the Liar!” was not exactly subtle, but it got people’s attention – and claimed to have raised about $1.5 million in a day from about 14,000 individual donors (the target has since been revised upwards to $2 million).

Stop and think about that for a moment. It was only four months ago, in February, that Hanson said there were no good Muslims. It was only last November the party’s leader wore a burqa into the chamber (for the second time) seeking to maximise shock and weaponise outrage. Evidently, it worked. Add to that the defection of Barnaby Joyce, the horrific events of Bondi that have deeply scarred the country, the war in Iran, a further crunch on household budgets and Labor’s launch of the most ambitious economic reform plan since the Howard government’s introduction of the GST in 2000.

This is One Nation’s moment, without question. The South Australian state election gave us a glimpse of the party’s electoral potential. The Farrer byelection confirmed it.

The Resolve Political Monitor, published by this masthead, shows that support for Hanson started to rise in September 2025, around the time the Liberals and Nationals began properly ripping themselves apart under Sussan Ley and David Littleproud, and it hasn’t stopped rising since.

Up to 30 cent of Australians are currently telling pollsters they would vote for One Nation, a party whose leader has built a three-decade career on making overtly racist statements (and sometimes walking them back, kinda sorta, but not really). And the Coalition response to all of this? Running up the white flag and attempting to co-opt its enemy.

Liberal frontbencher Tony Pasin suggested this week that the Coalition should form an alliance with One Nation and jointly decide which seats each party should run in to maximise their chances of forcing out Labor. He was quickly slapped down by party leader Angus Taylor and frontbencher James Paterson. Pasin’s idea was out there, but was it really that far removed from the approach Taylor, or the party’s newly installed president Tony Abbott, have taken?

Both the former and current Liberal leaders have said the Coalition and One Nation should swap preferences at the next election to force out the