Is Malcolm Turnbull scared of Pauline Hanson and Jacqui Lambie?

At his final National Press Club address before Saturday’s Federal election, Malcolm Turnbull urged voters not to vote for minor parties – could this mean he is threatened by independent candidates such as Jacqui Lambie and Pauline Hanson?

In his major speech, the PM warned Australians, saying it could lead to chaos and instability.

Turnbull implored Australians to make a solid choice if they want the federal parliament to end theatrics and “offload ideology”.

The Prime Minister also acknowledged that Australian politics had been a mess since Kevin Rudd took over the leadership in 2007.

“It is a roll of the dice that could well result in Bill Shorten as Prime Minister, with unions, Greens and independents pulling the strings,” Mr Turnbull said.

“This threat is real. So when it comes to the minor parties — be they Lambie, Xenophon, Lazarus or Hanson — Australians need to consider very carefully the impact on practical policy outcomes, and the workability of the parliament.”

“I say to Australians, again — if you only really know the leader of a minor party, but you don’t really know their candidates, and you don’t really know their policies, don’t vote for them. Australians won’t want to end up next week with a result they didn’t see coming”.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said that it is the pot calling the kettle black.

“We know the Liberal Party is not united. Mr Turnbull says give me another chance, I will unite the nation. It’s ironic because of the tensions in the Liberal Party but more importantly than that, the issues which affect working class and middle class people in Australia will not be solved by Mr Turnbull,” Mr Shorten said.

“You cannot unite Australia whilst you are cutting school funding. You cannot unite Australia when your only policy for housing affordability is get rich parents. You cannot unite Australia when you won’t take real action on climate change”.

Pauline Hanson used the opportunity to ask voters to vote 1 for One Nation:

“Many people are not happy with our choice of Prime Minister or the ‘two-party system'”, her team said in a Facebook post.

“We can combat this by putting the right people into the SENATE so that only legislation that is beneficial to Australians can be passed. The Senate is the House of Review and therefore people who are going to debate the issues should hold these seats”.

Jacqui Lambie spent today exposing “Liberal lies”, with her target aimed firmly at Liberal cuts to Tasmania’s Aged Cared sector.