Pauline for PM? Don’t underestimate Albanese’s supernatural love of being in the top job

June 25, 2026 — 5:00am

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.

Remove items from your saved list to add more.

It’s early 2028, and the unofficial campaign for the federal election, due in May, has well and truly begun. Treasurer Jim Chalmers is preparing a budget focusing on tax cuts, to be delivered in March. The cost of living is still the central issue but the political landscape has transformed. Things have certainly moved along for Pauline Hanson and her One Nation party since the previous election in 2025.

One Nation continues to do well in the opinion polls and Hanson’s rise in personal popularity remains a central focus. The long-standing two-sided electoral split has dissolved. Support has now solidified across three groups, with One Nation and the Labor Party vying for primacy, while the Coalition is well back in third place. This is similar to the spread established in mid-2026.

From the vantage point of early 2028, it’s clear that a big shift took place when Hanson addressed the National Press Club back in June 2026 after 30 years in public life. Her personality, her political modus operandi and her goals for society were laid bare. For the first time, Hanson presented herself, with good cause, as a contender – someone who could, arguably, directly wield power, possibly as prime minister.

But politics is a dynamic enterprise. Events and circumstances can always be relied upon to intervene. The Victorian Labor government suffered a catastrophic defeat in November 2026. The last straw for voters had come a few months earlier, in July, as they watched the Commonwealth Games beamed in from Glasgow after Labor comprehensively messed........

© Brisbane Times