OpinionJune 11, 2026 — 7:30pmOn Wednesday, Pauline Hanson and her party pulled off one of the most audacious stunts in recent political history. A few days after Labor appealed to supporters for donations to combat One Nation, the crossbench party – currently enjoying a moment on the political centre stage after three decades on the fringes – launched an attack ad and fundraising appeal of its own.“Fire the Liar!” was not exactly subtle, but it got people’s attention – and claimed to have raised about $1.5 million in a day from about 14,000 individual donors (the target has since been revised upwards to $2 million).Tony Abbott, Angus Taylor and Pauline Hanson.ONStop and think about that for a moment. It was only four months ago, in February, that Hanson said there were no good Muslims. It was only last November the party’s leader wore a burqa into the chamber (for the second time) seeking to maximise shock and weaponise outrage. Evidently, it worked. Add to that the defection of Barnaby Joyce, the horrific events of Bondi that have deeply scarred the country, the war in Iran, a further crunch on household budgets and Labor’s launch of the most ambitious economic reform plan since the Howard government’s introduction of the GST in 2000.This is One Nation’s moment, without question. The South Australian state election gave us a glimpse of the party’s electoral potential. The Farrer byelection confirmed it.The Resolve Political Monitor, published by this masthead, shows that support for Hanson started to rise in September 2025, around the time the Liberals and Nationals began properly ripping themselves apart under Sussan Ley and David Littleproud, and it hasn’t stopped rising since.Up to 30 cent of Australians are currently telling pollsters they would vote for One Nation, a party whose leader has built a three-decade career on making overtly racist statements (and sometimes walking them back, kinda sorta, but not really). And the Coalition response to all of this? Running up the white flag and attempting to co-opt its enemy.Liberal frontbencher Tony Pasin suggested this week that the Coalition should form an alliance with One Nation and jointly decide which seats each party should run in to maximise their chances of forcing out Labor. He was quickly slapped down by party leader Angus Taylor and frontbencher James Paterson. Pasin’s idea was out there, but was it really that far removed from the approach Taylor, or the party’s newly installed president Tony Abbott, have taken?Both the former and current Liberal leaders have said the Coalition and One Nation should swap preferences at the next election to force out the Labor government.What Pasin suggested was an extension of what is already happening: some in the Coalition are effectively sending a message to Australians that they don’t have the stomach to fight One Nation.If that sounds harsh, consider the counterfactual: it was Abbott who helped lead the fight against Hanson and One Nation way back in 1998, all the way up to her jailing for fraud in 2003 (she was acquitted on appeal). Abbott and Hanson made their peace years ago, but to the broader Coalition over the past two decades, One Nation has remained an enemy, albeit a relatively minor one, to be fought at the ballot box.Now, at the very moment the Coalition has sunk to arguably its weakest point in its history, rather than doubling down on the fight, the Liberal leader and president are trying to co-opt One Nation and win back the supporters their side has lost in droves to Hanson’s party by imitating it.Taylor, for example, has unveiled plans to deliver a major cut to immigration levels and to tie them to housing completion rates. Anger in the community about high immigration rates and the overheated housing market is real, and it has been growing for years, but Taylor’s policy was also a dog whistle to One Nation supporters.Quite how the Coalition hopes to win back government by being a pale imitation of One Nation is not clear, though Taylor and his team aver that by the time of the next election, they will have set out a clear economic manifesto that will help dispatch the twin threats of One Nation and an incumbent Labor government.Albanese said this week that voters are looking for politicians to demonstrate that they can help solve people’s problems.“Quite clearly, right around the world, there is frustration with the system and whether the system is working for people … and that is something we are very conscious of.”Which brings us back to One Nation. The accusation that a political leader or party was “racist” was once an automatic disqualifier in mainstream Australian politics. Now, so many people are angry about the state of the housing market, the cost of living, the price of petrol, the perceived privileges of the “elites” – which “real” Australians miss out on – that apparently it’s not such a red flag.To her growing band of supporters, the accusation that Hanson is racist is just another lie or smear directed at the woman they desperately hope can upend the status quo.Matthew Syed, a columnist in Britain’s The Times, wrote this week that “the most precious Western value is not liberty or patriotism. It is truth. Without truth, or something close, we cannot hope for anything else of value.”To defeat One Nation’s growing support, both major political parties need to tell the truth about One Nation and its unimplementable policies – such as raising defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP, at a cost of $400 billion over four years. They will need to stop being dazzled by the fundraising, freaked out by the polls and befuddled by the stunts, and tell the electorate that One Nation is not offering real solutions.Only one of the major parties is telling the truth about One Nation. The other one is sucking up to Hanson and hoping that her ability to divide Australians into “us” and “them” will drag it in her wake and into government.James Massola is chief political commentator.Get a weekly wrap of views that will challenge, champion and inform your own. Sign up for our Opinion newsletter.From our partners