Angus Taylor must take the fight up to One Nation – or look weak

July 5, 2026 — 1:30pm

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I understand the tactic of not attacking One Nation because I used to advocate it myself. Not because I ever thought the Liberal Party should be soft on Pauline Hanson but because, like former Liberal prime minister John Howard, I accepted the argument that attacking her would just give her oxygen. It was a sensible strategy at a time when voting intention for One Nation was sitting at about 6 per cent and had been for years.

It doesn’t work when current polling shows that its support is twice that of the Coalition. In the new political environment, nothing Liberal leader Angus Taylor does is going to give Hanson any more oxygen than she already has. She consumes oxygen like a bushfire. And, like a bushfire, she leaves a devastated landscape behind. Whenever Taylor is perceived to be dodging or fumbling the answer to questions about One Nation, it guarantees that it dominates the next news cycle.

There is another reason why Coalition politicians are hesitant about attacking One Nation: they don’t want to offend its newfound supporters, most of whom are their own discontented traditional voters. Above all, they know they must avoid the colossal error that cost Hillary Clinton the presidency in 2016. “Basket of deplorables” were three words that changed the world: if Clinton hadn’t shown such obvious contempt for disgruntled elements of the Democrats’ own traditional........

© The Sydney Morning Herald