‘Ridiculed’ Hanson looks to coalition kingmaker role

By Andrew Brown and Callum Godde

Pauline Hanson is open to forming a political alliance with the Liberals and Nationals, but opposition MPs have rejected a coalition with One Nation.

David Farley will head to Canberra after the One Nation candidate scored a thumping victory in the southern NSW seat of Farrer on Saturday.

His win over community independent Michelle Milthorpe snapped 77 years of coalition rule in the electorate and marked the first time his party has won a federal lower house seat.

The victory has raised the prospect of One Nation taking other regional seats and targeting outer suburban electorates, which could force the already decimated coalition to seek the support of Senator Hanson’s party.

While the One Nation leader said she would work with Liberals and Nationals to form a government, Senator Hanson said her party would not be in a formal coalition.

“I will give them supply and confidence … they can form a government with my numbers, I’m quite happy to do that,” she told Sydney radio station 2GB on Monday.

“I don’t want ministerial positions, because I’m not going to be the tail on the dog … because (the Liberals) have done that with the National Party.”

Senator Hanson said she felt vindicated by the Farrer by-election result.

“I’ve been pillaged and ridiculed and put down, and you know, everything thrown at me,” she said.

The Liberal primary vote tanked to 12.4 per cent, more than 30 percentage points down on the share secured a year earlier by Sussan Ley before her ousting as party leader and subsequent resignation.

But senior Liberals have rejected calls to enter into a coalition with One Nation to ensure their party’s longevity.

Shadow treasurer Tim Wilson on Sunday did not rule out a possible coalition with One Nation, saying it was “up to the Australian people to decide who they want to vote for”.

But the following day, he said he had never supported the idea.

“The reality is, the leader of that party has already declared that she won’t form a coalition with us and I have no interest in forming a coalition with them,” he told reporters in Canberra.

Deputy Liberal leader Jane Hume described a possible future union as a “massive hypothetical”.

One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce said the party was looking to replicate its success in western Sydney and was already speaking to potential candidates.

“What they’ve seen is that the polling is not an aberration,” he told Seven’s Sunrise program.

“It’s now been validated by both South Australia and Farrer. There is a strong following out there.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the coalition’s loss in Farrer was not surprising.

“It’s pretty clear that the traditional coalition parties, the Liberal Party and the National Party, don’t really stand for anything anymore,” he told Cairns radio station 4CA.

“I’m not sure that One Nation’s appeal will go beyond the sort of seat that we’ve seen and where they traditionally have done OK.”

But the result in Farrer could be replicated in certain outer-suburban seats, not just regional ones, former Labor strategist turned leading pollster Kos Samaras said.

“Seats like Lindsay (in Sydney’s west), I could see that seat could definitely become an interesting contest,” the RedBridge director told AAP.

“Every regional electorate that the Nats and the Liberal party hold is on the block.”