Updated ,first published
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor and frontbencher James Paterson have slapped down a radical call to split up seats and effectively run in a right-wing coalition with One Nation, as Paterson seized on Pauline Hanson’s admission that her party is being “infiltrated by extremists”.
Days after new Liberal president Tony Abbott said the parties could swap preferences, Coalition shadow cabinet member Tony Pasin put forward a far more serious proposal to come to an agreement with the populist party on which seats to run in, so that the Coalition and One Nation would not compete with one another.
Political analysts quickly cast Pasin’s idea as effectively throwing in the white flag on the Coalition governing in its own right, a move that would legitimise Labor’s scare campaign on the Coalition only being able to govern in tandem with One Nation.
Opposition sources said Pasin was expected to be rebuked by party leadership on Thursday for unsanctioned comments which shocked many colleagues on Wednesday night when they were published in The Australian.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese seized on Pasin’s “extraordinary statement” at a press conference in Sydney on Thursday.
“Saying that the Liberal Party should give up on trying to win seats, should step aside, so … One Nation wouldn’t run in some seats where the Liberal Party wants to contest. That says it all about the way that the once-mainstream Liberal Party … is almost giving up, two years before an election is held.”
Asked about the remarks on Thursday morning, Taylor told ABC TV there was “no plan to carve up seats”.
“We won’t be doing that. What we will be doing is focusing on a Labor government that’s taking this country in the wrong direction.”
Paterson, a senior member of Pasin’s conservative faction, took to radio to clean up the comments, which Taylor and his team did not want to leave to fester, and gave an unequivocal “no” when asked about the idea.
“I am not interested in dividing the spoils with another political party two years out from the election and, frankly, hitching our wagon to their brand with all the risks that that entails between now and then,” Paterson said on ABC radio.
“I think the Liberal Party needs to focus on earning back the trust and support of our traditional voters who were lost, before we contemplate an arrangement with any other party.”
Paterson also opened up a new line of attack on Hanson, seizing on her comments on the Inside Politics podcast in which she admitted her party branches were being “infiltrated by extremists”.
Paterson said: “Pauline Hanson has publicly said she is concerned about the fact that extremists have infiltrated her. Pauline Hanson is worried about it. I think all of us should be concerned about it.”
He continued: “I think conversations about preferences now are premature. I’ve been involved in allocating preferences at the Coalition campaigning headquarters in previous elections, [and] did not make a final decision about which candidates were in each seat until you know who each of those candidates are. Some political parties, like One Nation, have demonstrated great difficulty in choosing appropriate candidates for public office in the past.”
Redbridge pollster and former Labor campaigner Kos Samaras said in a social media post that Pasin’s remarks were “delusional”.
“The moment the Liberals stand aside anywhere, they tell their remaining voters the mission is over. Soft Liberal voters in the seats they keep will ask the obvious question: if my party thinks One Nation is fit to govern there, why not here? And One Nation gets the ultimate validation, being treated as a partner rather than a competitor,” Samaras said.
“The party of government, the party Menzies built to own the political centre, is preparing to raise the white flag.“
Pauline Hanson’s chief of staff James Ashby was jubilant about the success of One Nation’s fundraising driving on Thursday morning, raising the target to $2 million after the party claimed to raise more than $1.5 million in one day with its Fire the Liar campaign.
Ashby insisted the fundraiser was legitimate and all the donations were real.
“The money that has been raised by everyday mum and dad Aussies out there who have just had a gutful of this Prime Minister, he’s backgrounding them saying that the counter was fake,” Ashby said.
Albanese maintained his scepticism about Hanson’s fundraising haul on Thursday morning, asking: “Did she, though? Did she, what evidence is there?“
Asked if he believed the claims, he said: “You know, I have no idea, nor am I – You know, this is someone who got a plane worth more than that, given to her by Australia’s richest person. So that pales in insignificance with the size of a single donation which was given, showing, I think, the interests that One Nation represent.
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Emily Kaine is a national news blogger at The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.
Paul Sakkal is Chief Political Correspondent. He previously covered Victorian politics and won a Walkley award and the 2025 Press Gallery Journalist of the Year. Contact him securely on Signal @paulsakkal.14.Connect via X or email.