One Nation voters are fuming at party leader Pauline Hanson after she declared Opposition leader Peter Dutton would make a “very good Prime Minister” and repeatedly praised his policies.
The Queensland senator spoke in glowing terms about her centre-right rival during an interview with Sky New Australia’s Rowan Dean on Friday night, saying he was “on the right path” and had a “common sense approach to getting Australia back on track”.
“People want strong leadership. I hope he gives that strong leadership in the next few weeks. Because people are a bit mindful of him, will he make the leader. I think he will,” she said.
“I’ve got a lot of time and respect for Peter Dutton. I think he will make a very good Prime Minister.”
She then praised his fuel excise cut, but said she thought Mr Dutton’s immigration policies did not go far enough, saying she would impose an indefinite ban on foreign home ownership rather than the Coalition and Labor’s two-year pause, and said permanent migration should be cut to 130,000 rather than by 25%.
“I think Peter Dutton’s looking at 140 to 160,000, I think that’s fine, he’ll get our support in the Senate if we get the balance of power,” she said.
But her supporters reacted to the interview in disbelief, calling her a “sell out” and “controlled opposition”.
— JayJay (@JayJay91341991) March 29, 2025
“Pauline is starting to sell us out. Remember she was silent on the hate speech laws,” wrote one Australian, bringing up Ms Hanson’s surprise refusal to vote against Labor’s hate crimes bill in February, which also sparked anger from her voter base.
“There is a cycle where Pauline Hanson spends 3 years hating the liberal leader before immediately caving … the second the election gets called,” said another.
“Stacked her party with Indians. Was silent over hate speech laws. Is now campaigning for Peter Dutton,” said a third X user before going on to call her “the literal definition of controlled opposition”.
Another simply responded with a “zero seats” meme, which was popularised by right-wing voters during the last UK election to punish the Conservative party for being too progressive.
But Ms Hanson’s comments also attracted criticism from left-wing X users.
“Probably not the smartest thing to say against someone you are competing for cooker votes with,” said one person with a laughing emoji.
Header image credit: Sky News Australia
