Pauline Hanson takes over Albanese as preferred Prime Minister for first time
Exclusive fresh polling reveals One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has surged to become the nation’s preferred Prime Minister for the very first time, shattering decades of major party dominance.
Resolve Political Monitor from The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age found Pauline Hanson is now first choice for the top job.
Hanson has promised to target Labor seats with her new war chest of donations. Alex Ellinghausen
Her party One Nation also inched ahead of Labor on primaries, with the Coalition recording its lowest ever result.
Hanson is now planning to leverage this surge in popularity, using donations to the party to launch a television ad blitz during Wednesday night’s State of Origin.
At the end of March, new polling pegged One Nation as the most popular party in the country, leapfrogging Labor in primary support.
The latest The Australian Financial Review/Redbridge Group/Accent Research poll revealed primary support for One Nation has jumped four percentage points to 31 per cent since the pre-budget poll a month ago.
Hanson promises to air her “Fire the Liar” commercials during the prime-time rugby league game, before flying that same message above our biggest cities.
The ad attacks Anthony Albanese and now, she’s ahead of him as preferred Prime Minister.
While One Nation’s also ahead of Labor in the polls, it’s the Coalition in most strife at a distant third.
“I think these campaigns come and they go, we’ve all run them,” Health Minister Mark Butler said.
“They’re actually not interested in fighting the Coalition, they want to take over the Coalition.
However, Shadow Defence Industry Minister Phil Thompson said if One Nation is serious about change, they need more than ads.
“If we’re going to be serious about getting rid of this bad government, we should be looking at working with everyone,” Thompson said.
Outgoing Shadow Home Affairs Minister Jonno Duniam’s parting warning as the coalition frontbencher quits politics for family reasons was clear.
“All of this talk about preference deals and coalitions is way too premature, and in fact not even relevant. Our job is to win back the votes we lost,” he said.
“The leadership change earlier this year was a point in time where I thought, I’ve had enough.”
While Labor won’t welcome Pauline Hanson’s ascension to preferred PM, it’s a double whammy for Angus Taylor losing a trusted pair of hands and effectively losing the claim to call himself the de facto opposition leader.
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