Labor needs to refocus its attacks on One Nation

June 11, 2026 — 8:00pm Photo: Matt GoldingTo submit a letter to The Age, email letters@theage.com.au. Please include your home address and telephone number. No attachments, please include your letter in the body of the email. See here for our rules and tips on getting your letter published.The Labor government may be making a strategic mistake in how it responds to One Nation. Constantly attacking the party risks reinforcing its image as an outsider challenging the political establishment. A more effective approach may be to remind voters that One Nation is no longer an insurgent movement. After almost 30 years in Australian politics, it has held parliamentary seats, received public funding and become part of the political landscape. By treating One Nation as an established party rather than a protest vehicle, Labor could shift the debate from anti-establishment sentiment to a comparison of policies and solutions.Bryce Peach, Brunswick EastAre Hanson supporters fully aware?Yes, Pauline Hanson’s close relationship with Gina Rinehart appears to be at odds with support for ordinary Australians (″⁣Hanson’s fundraising blitz raises more than $945,000 in a single day″⁣, 11/6). But are Hanson supporters aware that based on her links to Rinehart, whose ideology is closely aligned with Donald Trump, One Nation would support right-wing groups, increase defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP, abandon action on climate change and net zero, lower corporate taxes and eliminate fuel excise. Hanson’s proposed changes would directly benefit owners of capital and high-income earners.Is this what Hanson supporters want?Leigh Ackland, Deepdene‘Born-to-rule’ mentality no longer cuts itShaun Carney (Comment, 11/6) has neatly summarised the woes affecting the Liberal Party, which have been inexorably mounting since the political demise of John Howard. What Carney failed to mention is the “born-to-rule” mentality which has permeated the party for decades and resulted in an indolence for policy development and a total lack of understanding for what is required to govern for all Australians. What are they about?Serge Bobbera, GeelongPlease, some costed policy formulationsFederally, the Liberal Party ousts its first female leader and now is working to oust the Labor government at the next election. Would it be too much to ask that that effort be directed, not to ousting, but to some good, costed policy formulation that might persuade voters that it’s fit to govern differently?Peter Myers, East MelbourneWhat a choice awaits the votersWhat an excellent letter from your correspondent (“Parties, it’s time for a rebrand of names”, 11/6). It is such a clear analysis of what we can expect from all political parties. What choices have the Australian people got when they cast their vote on who should govern Australia. Where are we heading if this continues?Christine Baker, RosannaWhen a preference is no preference at allThe surge of One Nation exposes a major weakness of the full preferential voting system used in federal and Victorian state elections. Under this system, voters must give a number to every candidate on the ballot. This means that Labor and Coalition voters need to decide whether to put One Nation above or below their traditional opponent, Labor or Coalition, on their ballots.This decision is much more significant in our new three-party system because Labor voters who put One Nation below the Coalition could help elect the Coalition. Similarly, Coalition voters could help elect Labor candidates.Australia’s much-lauded full preferential voting system is overly complex and prone to produce perverse results. If we had optional preferential voting in which voters could simply leave some boxes on their ballot paper blank, the problem of where to place One Nation, or any other candidate, would disappear.Rod Wise, Surrey HillsTHE FORUMData guardrailsIt is absolutely imperative that the Albanese government properly regulates the AI data-centre boom now (“Labor to hit data centres with peak-hour curbs”, 11/6). As the article notes, poor regulation has allowed the gas industry to leech off Australia’s resources for years without paying sufficient tax or royalties, all while polluting our atmosphere and worsening climate change.We cannot afford to let the same pattern repeat with data centres.Australia already has 162 operational data centres, and the sector’s water and energy use is expected to triple by 2030. Strong regulation is essential to ensure this soaring demand doesn’t undermine the needs of Australian households or derail our climate and renewable energy targets.Winding down data centre power use during peak times is a good start, but firmer government guardrails are needed to ensure the industry serves the public interest rather than draining it.Larni Dibben, Glen IrisWater supply worriesI was involved with the volunteer WaterWatch organisation for more than 20 years. I was also involved in examination of the impact of forest logging upon our catchments. Logging, and now increasingly severe and frequent bushfires, result in substantial losses of water yield from our rivers, while polluting both rivers and air.We keep adding to our cities and demanding more from our irrigated agriculture. Our rivers are over-committed, operating largely as irrigation canals.As steam power-stations decline we gain some reduction in cooling water demand. However the cooling of the proposed data centres requires not only vast amounts of power but also commensurate cooling water.The data-centre boom needs urgent, close, wide-ranging investigation before money and environmental capital are risked in what may prove a dangerous bubble.John Poppins, Mount WaverleyParty to denialOn looking at One Nation’s website, I discovered the party is climate change deniers despite all the science and evidence. The Arctic and Antarctic ice masses are melting, sea levels are rising, coral is bleaching, etc. The climate has changed in the past, but scientists have proved that the current change is due mainly to burning fossil fuels and deforestation. This is science, not ideology or politics. So, I’ll put them last on the ballot paper. I urge everyone who is concerned about the climate to do likewise.Len Cox, Forest HillJourney to the pastI am waiting for Tony Abbott to advocate the return of the horse and cart. In his mind it would negate the need for energy-guzzling vehicles, solve the problem of getting oil ships through the Strait of Hormuz, and return us all to those idyllic days of old.Margaret Collings, AngleseaDisenchantment risesIt is somewhat of a disingenuous circular argument for your correspondent (Letters, 11/6) to deflect the blame for the rise of One Nation from the major parties to “The Trump Effect”. This so-called effect, which has manifested itself over most of the Western World, is largely a result of voter disenchantment with the poor performance of virtually all major political parties over recent decades.In Australia, thanks to the major parties, we now have an ex-fish and chip shop owner being our most popular political leader. Serves them right.Tony O’Brien, South MelbourneWarning from the depthsAs a youngster, I spent lots of time around the harbour at Sandringham and was fascinated with the submarine that served as a breakwater there for many decades from 1930. The J7 was a gift from Britain after WWI, but it was already worn out when it arrived and saw minimal service with our navy. Today, it is a rusted black streak that can be seen in aerial photos of the club marina. J7 is a reminder of what can go wrong when we take on second-hand submarines with many underwater miles on the clock. AUKUS enthusiast Richard Marles should go down and check it out.Peter McCarthy, MentoneFaint reassuranceIt’s hardly reassuring that “despite catching nearly a quarter of its year 12s cheating, Mazenod said the school did not believe the behaviour had been co-ordinated among the students” (“Dozens caught cheating at Mazenod College using AI in key exam”, 10/6).It’s difficult to say which is more disturbing: that nearly a quarter are colluding to cheat, or that nearly a quarter are independently, unilaterally, deciding to cheat.Either way it suggests a widespread – possibly even accepted – practice across students. And, it may be that such an attitude is not limited to Mazenod.Deborah Morrison, Malvern EastThe reverse is trueI don’t know why people have trouble with Donald Trump’s communications. You just have to realise he talks in opposites –If he says they are cheering, they are booing;If he says I had a bigger crowd, he knows he had a smaller crowd;If he says the war is ahead of schedule, there is no schedule;If he says he brings peace, he brings war;If he says “they have no windmills”, he knows they have hundreds of thousands.Ron Slamowicz, Caulfield NorthSlippery narrativeThe narrative leading up to the last federal budget was that Anthony Albanese, given Labor’s substantial majority, had to have the fortitude to change the tax system in order to make it more equitable even if it meant reneging on an election pledge.Having done that, now the narrative appears to be that you can’t trust Albanese because of a broken promise. Go figure.Phil Alexander, ElthamSanction IsraelThree views on Israeli settler violence compete for our consent (″⁣Settler sanctions stir Israeli anger″⁣, 11/6). The first is that of the foreign ministers of Australia, France, the UK, Canada and Norway. Together they have condemned the violence of extremist settlers and imposed sanctions on a handful of the most lawless. The second is that of Israel’s foreign ministry. It accuses the ministers of using these measures as camouflage for ″⁣a political stance regarding the right of Jews to live in the Land of Israel″⁣ and of fuelling antisemitism. The third is that of the Jewish Council of Australia, in parallel with a new report on settler violence from a UN commission of inquiry. The council’s executive officer, Bart Shteinman, states that ″⁣true accountability means recognising that this expansionist violence is effectively government policy″⁣ and as such should be met with ″⁣country level sanctions against Israel, rather than against individual settlers and organisation″⁣. His clear-eyed view exposes Australia’s action as compromised and Israel’s response as self-justifying. It’s time for Australia to sanction the state of Israel.Tom Knowles, ParkvilleFrom the wreckageThe Age Ago: 1960 (11/6) detailed the crash of an F-27 twin-prop Fokker Friendship aircraft off the coast of Mackay, which claimed 29 lives.Trans Australian Airlines (TAA) Flight 538 took off from Brisbane on Friday, June 10, with put-downs at Maryborough and Rockhampton. Adding to the nine passengers on board were seven adults and nine schoolboys.A memorial was built within weeks of the tragedy. Mackay foundry workers created a bronze plaque with the names of the pilot, flight crew and passengers at Illawong Beach in the city’s south.A subsequent Board of Inquiry determined that passenger-carrying aircraft of the size of the Fokker F-27 and larger, should be equipped with Flight Data Recorders. Australia became the first country to mandate that cockpit voice recorders be fitted on civil transport aircraft, which was later adopted by other countries. This gave birth to the Black Box now fitted on all major aircraft worldwide.Barrie Osborne, Port MelbournePervasive victimisationYour correspondent (Letters, 11/6) is disingenuous in claiming that the Israeli PM’s Jewishness was merely incidental to a cartoon that evoked the age-old antisemitic trope of an international conspiracy by powerful Jews to manipulate governments and global events. The most notorious of such conspiracies – The Protocols of the Elders of Zion - is a hoax that to this day has been used to justify the persecution of Jews in many parts of the world.Of course, Trump, Xi Jinping, and Albanese are not representative of all Americans, Chinese, and Australians, respectively. However, as has been demonstrated in many witness testimonies at the Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, it only tends to be Jews who face pervasive victimisation for the perceived sins of their presumed representative, Benjamin Netanyahu.Geoff Feren, St Kilda EastThis beautiful gameThis might be an unpopular opinion, but now the real football begins, the World Cup. I love AFL but nothing can prepare us fans for the passion and atmosphere of soccer. Let the beautiful game take over Melbourne’s pubs this Sunday.Panagiota Frangopoulos, Malvern Photo: Matt GoldingAND ANOTHER THINGAIAre all of our eggs in the AI basket? If so, it’s a risky strategy.Peter Randles, Pascoe Vale SouthWill AI become so clever that it will be able to redirect extra electricity to its data centres to the detriment of household supplies?Dianne Jones, St Albans ParkIt’s no use trying to curb data centres now. The AI genie has been let out of the bottle and will never be put back.Sandra Torpey, HawthornI fear this could be a news headline in the near future: “Artificial Intelligence causes power blackout.″⁣ It’s OK though, the government says we have our best AI working on the problem.Murray Horne, CressyAnd here I was thinking all my data was being kept in a cloud (″⁣Data centres to be curbed at peak times″⁣, 11/6). I’ve been had!Wendy Brennan, BendigoPoliticsYour correspondent (Letters, 10/6 ) nailed it. If the ″⁣battlers″⁣ dare to complain, the LNP wheels out the old slogan ″⁣politics of envy″⁣.Dan Drummond, LeongathaSo excited for Pauline Hanson to face the National Press Club. Hopefully, she will be grilled to ″⁣please explain″⁣. Can’t wait.Colleen Heatley, Drouin WestThere will be a significant reduction in the availability of rental properties for tenants if negative gearing benefits are no longer available to investors.Iain Carmichael, RichmondFurthermoreDonald Trump appeared to fall asleep in the NBA finals. Quite understandable in an 80-year-old, but hypocritical as he constantly referred to Joe Biden as “Sleepy Joe″⁣.John Guy, ElsternwickWhat a lovely tribute and state funeral for Neale Daniher at the MCG. Stay classy, Melbourne.Jenny Smith, East MelbourneA helicopter worth millions downed by a drone? I hope we aren’t buying any Apaches. What’s that? We’ve ordered 29 of them?Andrew Parkin, NorthcoteFrom our partners