Anthony Albanese has come under fierce criticism after declaring Australians “owe it to history” to defeat One Nation, as fallout continues from Labor’s by-election loss in the Western Australian seat of Secret Harbour.
Speaking at the Labor Queensland conference on Sunday, the Prime Minister said Pauline Hanson’s party would say “anything” to win support, accusing it of twisting facts and setting “Australian against Australian”. He said Labor had a responsibility to beat One Nation.
“Across the world, hard-right populists are on the march. Peddling politics that is dangerous, divisive and downright dishonest,” Mr Albanese said.
“We simply must defeat them. We owe it to history. And we will defeat them.”
His intervention came a day after One Nation took Secret Harbour from Labor, marking the first time the party has won a seat from Labor. The result came with a 17.5 per cent swing against Labor in an outer Perth electorate the party had won comfortably at the state election last year.
Mr Albanese said “parties like One Nation” trade in grievance and offered “no serious answers” to the country’s challenges.
“Their own divisions and disagreements are now showing through,” he said.
“They think Australians are lazy and overpaid. That people working from home are bludging.
“That domestic violence is sometimes a woman’s fault. That we should – somehow – become a monoculture.
“It’s obvious, One Nation are not on the side of working people … Every time they achieve any success, it leads to chaos and division.”
But the Prime Minister’s comments quickly drew an angry response online, with critics arguing he failed to understand why some voters were moving to One Nation.
“Considering most of the voter swinging to ON were Labor voters” one commenter wrote. “It shows Albo is disconnected from his own constituents.”
Another added: “It just makes them more popular … You only want them out of the way because you know your days are numbered.”
While a third wrote: “He confuses ‘our nation’ with ‘One Nation’. He already made great progress in destroying our nation. If he stays in power he will succeed.”
And another noted: “Nothing you have done has benefited Australians.”
“Absolute hypocrite”, “disgusting”, “embarrasing excuse for a prime minister”, and “f**k you labor”, others fumed.
One Nation’s Luke Herdegen, who claimed victory in Secret Harbour on Saturday, said voters had delivered a warning that would be felt well beyond Western Australia.
“No seat is safe from the orange tsunami,” he said.
Mr Herdegen said the by-election had permanently altered politics in WA.
“There are no safe Labor seats in this state or in this country anymore,” he said.
“(The voters have) certainly sent a message I think to Canberra as well, and to Anthony Albanese, that they’re unhappy,”
Senator Hanson also celebrated the outcome, saying the result showed people were looking to One Nation for hope.
“This is a clear message to Anthony Albanese,” she said, “People are turning to One Nation hoping, and it’s all about hope. They want hope. We’re really out there winning seats.”
“They’re wanting someone who’s really going to listen to them and really go out and fight for them to change the direction this country is going in,” she said.
“And I give them my solemn oath I’m trying to get the right people on the floor of parliament to do that for the Australian people, to give them back our country that’s been stripped away from us every which way.”
In a National Press Club address in June, Pauline Hanson set out policies including winding back paid parental leave, a position she later walked back, reducing worker entitlements and rejecting multiculturalism. A month later, she described domestic violence as a “two-way street” and urged women “not to put up with it”.
