One Nation sets sights on Government seats as Anthony Albanese declares Labor is only centrist party

Albanese government figures are nervously anticipating a One Nation assault on traditionally safe Labor electorates at the next election after Pauline Hanson’s populist party finally won its first Federal Lower House seat on Saturday with a crushing margin. As the Coalition reels from losing the NSW regional electorate of Farrer, which it has held since its creation in 1949, the Prime Minister has declared Labor is now the only party “in the centre of Australian politics”. “We’ve got the Greens political party on our left and now we’ve got three right-wing parties effectively all promising similar things,” Anthony Albanese said on Monday when asked about the historic result,” he told Radio 4CA in Cairns. “And that’s why if the Liberal Party just try to be One Nation light, then they shouldn’t be surprised that people will vote for the real thing rather than the lighter version of it.” While the Prime Minister revels in the opposition’s disastrous result in a by-election Labor didn’t contest, MPs and strategists in his party are privately conceding One Nation could threaten some of their own seats at the next Federal poll. Star One Nation recruit, the former Nationals leader and deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce, has declared the traditional Labor stronghold of western Sydney is his party’s next target. “We are very much in the mind for the western suburbs of Sydney. I was talking to people from the western suburbs of Sydney last night . . . I was even talking to potential candidates. People are very enthusiastic,” Joyce said on Monday. “They know we have a huge potential as a nation, and they want to be part of that potential, not part of this butterfly chasing exercise,” he told Channel Seven Sunrise program. Strategists from both Labor and the Coalition admit One Nation is prospering most in outer suburban, regional and working-class electorates, and western Sydney occupies a large number of seats that both sides consider crucial to winning office. Support for One Nation during the South Australian state election in March saw it clinch seven seats, with the party’s vote highest in an area that overlaps with the Federal seat of Spence held by Labor’s Matt Burnell. “South Australia showed just how many blue-collar workers in traditional Labor electorates are now prepared to vote for One Nation – we cannot ignore the reality”, one senior Labor insider from the state told The Nightly. Labor hard heads believe WA seats such Burt, Hasluck and Peace could all lose significant numbers of votes to One Nation, while the NSW’s mining seat of Hunter has long been considered fertile ground for Pauline Hanson’s movement. Flanked by Nationals colleagues for a press conference at Parliament House on Monday, Nationals Leader Matt Canavan said his party had no interest in forming a coalition with One Nation. “It’s pretty simple. It’s not rocket science. We should decide what we think is right for our country and then fight like hell for it. That’s what my commitment is post the election”, he said when asked by The Nightly if he would change anything about his approach. “I’ve always stuck by my convictions about what I think is right, and we’ve got detailed plans for how we do things differently, but I’ll just double down and fight even harder with more resolve and more determination.” Nationals MP Colin Boyce also declared he was “absolutely committed” to the Party following a report that the Queensland backbencher could follow Barnaby Joyce in joining One Nation after its stunning Farrer by-election win. In an interview with The Guardian over the weekend, the LNP member for the central Queensland electorate of Flynn said many people had suggested he should also join Ms Hanson’s populist party. When asked to clarify the comments on Monday, Mr Boyce told reporters he was “absolutely committed to the National party… so the short answer to your question is - am I joining One Nation? No.” Since Saturday’s by-election loss, which saw Liberal candidate Raissa Butkowski attract just 12 percent of the primary vote in Farrer, Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has been noticeably quiet, not holding a press conference or giving any interviews. On election night the Liberal leader defended his decision to oust his predecessor Sussan Ley who then quit Parliament and forced the Farrer by-election which the party then suffered a huge swing. “We’ve got to rebuild trust with the Australian people and show that we are a party of government that can win government and put this country back in the right direction,” he told Sky News. Nationals’ candidate Brad Robertson attracted almost 10 percent of the primary vote in Farrer, despite his party not contesting the seat since Ms Ley took over from former deputy PM Tim Fischer in 2001.