Can someone ‘please explain’ One Nation’s messaging muddle?

September 11, 2026 — 5:00am

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In this week’s On Background, One Nation’s messaging leaves the party in a spin, Hughsey gets drinks with conservative power brokers, Nine celebrates broadcasting with AI and has anyone seen Karl?

Messaging madness: One Nation’s moment of truth

Revelations of Victorian One Nation leader Warren Pickering’s history with amphetamines, drink-driving and sexual deviance will do little to move the dial with tribalism in both Australian politics and media. But in the immediate aftermath, the spin was in overdrive.

Die-hard One Nation supporters and cheerleading sections of Australian media claimed his eventual admission only strengthened their resolve the party are the only truth tellers.

But only a few weeks earlier, Pickering’s lawyers threatened to sue if the allegations were published, then claiming on the record those allegations were false. Party leader Pauline Hanson was even sent out to back up that claim publicly on Monday, only to have egg on her face 24 hours later.

It was quite the U-turn, with Pickering facing up to News24 and Paul Murray’s Man Cave on Tuesday night, calling it disappointing that “reputable media sources didn’t look at this story and think maybe that’s not for public viewing”, adding that the story was designed to “gaslight, effectively”. Does he know what gaslighting is? Maybe he was gaslighting us all when he denied the story!

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Earlier on, Chris Kenny suggested to fellow News Corp colleague Tim Blair that the “liberal left” shouldn’t be attacking a politician over details of their private life.

The elephant in the room was that the bombshell allegations were broken by the fellow News Corp masthead that Kenny even works for himself as an associate editor. That fact was omitted, of course.

But the saga speaks to a deeper disorganisation of One Nation’s current media strategy, and the fact Hanson just can’t seem to get her team’s messaging in order.

James Ashby’s One Nation

Ahead of Pickering’s press conference, the ABC and The Guardian were once again thrown out by party enforcer and public office aspirant James Ashby. There have been murmurs of a One Nation boycott from sections of the media, On Background hears. Though we’re yet to see any follow........

© The Sydney Morning Herald