Opinion
On the day Matt Canavan was elected National Party leader, he launched a stinging critique of Pauline Hanson’s failures as a politician – except in the exploitation of grievances, where she excels.
It was the first time in a long time that a conservative politician – one with as much cred in the right-wing stratosphere as Canavan, through his unrelenting opposition to net zero, abortion and same-sex marriage – had dared point out that in 30 years, Hanson had not delivered a single dam, road, or hospital.
Canavan won praise from unexpected quarters, including from people he would have once considered opponents.
However even he was not spared the wrath of the shrinking, ageing, raging Coalition membership, whipped up by the Sky After Dark mob, who flooded his office and party headquarters to insist Canavan stop criticising One Nation. He showed on Wednesday when challenging One Nation on its water policy – a key issue in the Farrer byelection – that he won’t retreat.
Fellow conservative, Liberal frontbencher Andrew Hastie, has been subjected to similar treatment, again partly driven by the SAD mob that now exalts Hanson. He also pledges not to retreat.
Canavan, Hastie and all leaders and aspiring leaders should never shrink from telling people what they don’t want to hear. Nor should politicians always offer people what they demand – especially as it might inflict greater harm – in an effort to preserve their sagging popularity.
Which brings us to Anthony Albanese, who has trod even more carefully since Donald Trump launched his reckless, bloodthirsty war in the Middle East. It is a complicated, risk-filled exercise to stay aligned with America and remain distant from its erratic president, while dealing with the consequences of his vainglorious war.
Albanese has tried hard, including with his address to the nation on Wednesday night, to reassure Australians witnessing Trump’s manic behaviour that the Labor government is in control. He faltered on Monday by halving fuel excise. It will not conserve one litre of fuel, which should be a prime objective. It will encourage consumption and hoarding. It will cost billions and feed inflation.
Weeks after the bombing began, Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock raised interest rates and promised/threatened she was prepared to do it again, even if it caused a recession, as she ever so politely warned the government to cut spending and improve productivity.
Albanese’s fuel decision and his more direct questioning of Trump, following more bad polls for him and the Coalition, is unlikely to correct the slide, just like parroting or pandering to Pauline will not save the Coalition.
Senior Nationals cautious in responding to One Nation report constituents and members have told them to their face not to pick fights with “the redhead.”
“She is not the enemy,” they tell their MPs. In fact, she is the enemy. Smarter MPs know that, despite traditional Coalition voters, past and present, believing their parties and One Nation can be friends and work as one big happy family to destroy Labor and the Greens.
These voters either don’t care or don’t understand that One Nation is determined to obliterate the Coalition, so if it fails to challenge her it will be complicit in its own destruction.
Hastie has been singled out for abuse over a number of years and over different issues because he is not afraid to call out bad behaviour, nor disavow his friendship with Malcolm Turnbull.
Standing up in court against his former fellow SAS officer, Ben Roberts-Smith, has earned Hastie the undying enmity of Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart. Rinehart and her latest political bestie, Hanson, are fully paid up members of the MAGA movement, paying homage to Trump at his Florida residence Mar-a-Lago.
Hastie is the most persistent, most outspoken and most lethal critic of Trump in Australian politics. He fully expects Rinehart and Hanson will spare no effort or expense to destroy him. He is determined not to help them do it.
He unloaded on Trump in January after Trump accused allied troops of hanging back in the fight against the Taliban. Hastie witnessed the horrors of war up close in Afghanistan, unlike Trump, whose most direct experience of war is watching splatter movies in situation rooms.
After Hastie voted for the hate speech legislation, far-right online critics branded him a traitor. He called them “emotionally incontinent”.
Hastie launched a few more missiles at Trump when the president chided Australia for refusing to join a war that he had started without bothering to consult or advise his closest allies. Hastie called him petulant, then declared the international rules-based order was dead.
Then he took aim at Hanson for unequivocally backing Trump, accusing her of putting MAGA first rather than Australia first.
Hastie’s landmark interview on ABC’s Insiders on Sunday – where he called the Iran strikes a “huge miscalculation”, was open to discussing contentious tax changes to negative gearing and capital gains, and urged a seat-by-seat decision on preferences for One Nation – drew more criticism from the far right.
He riled some of his colleagues and fired up the keyboard warriors, but with an audience of more than 1 million across different platforms, Hastie’s thoughtful reflections on politics and war also piqued the interest and admiration of a whole new group of Australians.
He and Canavan said what was right, despite discomfiting colleagues and what remains of their membership base. Agree with them or not, they are effective communicators. They command attention. They also seem real – skills essential to building a new base.
The issue internally with Hastie wasn’t only that what he said differed from his leader and frontbench colleagues, but that he said it better. Hastie is both interesting and unpredictable.
Labor has been alert to the threat of One Nation for some time. In early war gaming of the next election, one option has One Nation as the main opponent. It should now throw Hastie into that mix.
Niki Savva is a regular columnist for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. Her most recent book, Earthquake, details the inside story of the 2025 election.
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Niki Savva is an award-winning political commentator and author. She was a staffer to former prime minister John Howard and former treasurer Peter Costello, and is a member of the board of Old Parliament House.