One Nation prepared to cut worker entitlements to shore up struggling small businesses

Barnaby Joyce told 7.30 that One Nation would take a pragmatic approach to balancing worker and business interests. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson says it is too hard for businesses to sack "lazy" workers, suggesting her party was prepared to wind back some workplace rights.

The party's treasury spokesman Barnaby Joyce says One Nation will take a "holistic" approach to workplace relations, but said small business was the driver of the nation's economy.

Mr Joyce asked for One Nation to be given "grace" as it developed its economic policies, with an election still two years away.

One Nation's newly named "treasury spokesman" Barnaby Joyce says the party is prepared to cut worker entitlements to safeguard small businesses struggling to deal with inflation and high power prices.

At One Nation leader Pauline Hanson's address to the National Press Club on Tuesday, the senator said she would seek to rebalance workplace laws in favour of business, saying some workers were "lazy" or "don't turn up", but the law made it too hard to sack them.

Asked by 7.30 whether One Nation had made a decision to back business over workers, Mr Joyce said small business was the driver of the economy.

"You don't have a job if the small business goes broke, you don't have a job if the small business is unable to employ you," he said.

"What Senator Hanson was saying is you have to have a holistic look at this."

Mr Joyce, who has been given the party reins on its economic policy, said One Nation would take a "pragmatic" approach to managing the economy.

"If you arbitrarily say, 'Well, we're just going to put up wages', and somehow magically the small business that's already struggling … is going to be able to somehow charge $10 for a cup of coffee and everybody will buy it — well, it won't," Mr Joyce said.

This is a politician who knows a lot more than she did 30 years ago about what works for her.

Earlier, Senator Hanson suggested she was prepared to consider winding back some entitlements for workers, including protections from termination and paid parental leave.

"If you are a male or female you do get the same pay … you do the work, same pay," the senator said.

"If women take time off, and they are not paid their wages because they are not working, fair enough, why should business pay them if they are not at work?"

She also suggested income tax owed on hours worked overtime could be relaxed, and that more money could be returned to workers if government spending was reined in.

But One Nation's position on workplace laws will open the part