The shadow treasurer, Tim Wilson, has said he would “never, ever, ever” support a coalition government with One Nation, walking back previous comments that left the door open to such an arrangement.
Urging the Liberals to “get on with” setting out what they stand for, Wilson joined other senior party figures in rejecting any partnership with the rightwing populist party.
After One Nation’s resounding victory in the Farrer byelection, where it easily won a seat held for 77 years by the Coalition and consigned the Liberals to 12% of the primary vote, focus has sharpened on how the Angus Taylor-led party will hold off threats on both its right and left flanks.
On Sunday, Wilson raised the possibility of forming government with One Nation but on Monday he and other senior Liberal figures rejected joining forces, despite the conservative vote in Australia splintering and One Nation’s consistent outpolling of the Coalition spelling an existential threat to its survival.
“Of course, we traditionally form a coalition with the National party but it’s up to the Australian people to decide who they want to vote for,” Wilson, a Liberal moderate who won back a teal-held seat at the 2025 election, told the ABC’s Insiders program when asked on Sunday about potentially working with One Nation.
“It all comes down to what Australians put up.”
But when asked about those comments on Monday, Wilson rejected such a rightwing alliance.
“I have never, ever, ever, and never, ever, ever will make such a statement in favour of such an alignment,” he said. “The reality is, the leader of that party [Pauline Hanson] has already declared that she won’t form a coalition with us, and I have no interest in forming a coalition with them.”
The shadow foreign affairs minister, Ted O’Brien, also dismissed the idea, saying: “We have no plans for going into a coalition with One Nation.”
Barnaby Joyce, the former Nationals MP who switched to One Nation, said his party would offer confidence in parliament to the Coalition if such a situation arose but rejected a formal alliance.
“We’ll offer supply and confidence on policy outcomes … and that is not a coalition. We don’t want your ministries, keep your ministries and your salaries,” Joyce told Channel Nine, saying his colleagues wouldn’t want to be “constricted by cabinet solidarity”.
Wilson accused One Nation of “hubris” in its leaders’ comments about targeting seats in western Sydney and major cities but conceded many voters wanted change and were fed up with the political status quo, while admitting the Coalition needed to work harder to keep voters onside.
“People are faced with choices about how they bring about change, and they’re sending a message very clearly to the government,” Wilson said.
“There’s a lot of work to do, and no one’s pretending otherwise, and that’s why we’re going to put forward a bold, confident vision for the future of the country, backed up with policy to back the self-starters of this nation, to back small businesses, to back families and to back communities. And we have to get on with that.”
While the One Nation surge has largely damaged the Coalition so far, the Labor government is mindful of the anti-establishment and anti-status quo messages from Hanson’s rise. Anthony Albanese has been reluctant to strongly criticise One Nation voters, instead focusing his critiques on Hanson’s lack of real-world outcomes despite a long career in politics.
“Quite clearly there’s a lot of people under financial pressure who feel like the system isn’t working for them,” the prime minister told ABC Radio National. “And that’s a message for all political parties in the system.
“I respect people’s right to vote whatever way they determine. But One Nation, of course, is not a party of government. They are a political party led by someone who’s promoted grievance rather than solutions.”
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