Scott Morrison still can’t say how his party will deal with One Nation preferences at the coming election, as the Coalition’s internal battle intensifies in what Bill Shorten has now labelled a test of the prime minister’s leadership.
Speaking from One Nation’s heartland in Queensland, Morrison upped his rhetoric against the far-right party, accusing it of cozying up to America’s powerful gun lobby, the National Rifle Association, in exchange for selling out Australia’s strong gun laws.
“There are many reasons not to vote for One Nation,” Morrison said from Brisbane. “It is a long list. And we have seen some of those on display in recent times.
“Today we saw further evidence of that, where we have reports that One Nation officials basically sought to sell Australia’s gun laws to the highest bidders to a foreign buyer, and I find that abhorrent.”
Shorten went one step further, calling the revelations One Nation was seeking millions in political donations from the US National Rifle Association a “betrayal of the Australian political system”.
“What are these right-wing extremists thinking?” he asked, adding “this is now a test of Mr Morrison’s leadership”.
“To see a party who may receive the government’s preferences caught out on video boasting about taking money, watering down Australia’s protections, trying to Americanise our gun laws – what more does Mr Morrison need to show some spine and put One Nation last?”
Morrison denounced the actions of the One Nation officials Steve Dickson and James Ashby, revealed as part of a three-year Al Jazeera undercover investigation into the NRA, as “abhorrent”.
“When John Howard put those laws in under a Coalition government, they were put in to protect Australians. No law should be up to the highest bidder as some part of foreign interference and it is our government which has actually put in place the laws which would make that impossible, at least it would make it unlawful in this country to do that, and those laws took effect on the first of January this year.
“But the fact that they were prepared to do it, if you are ever wondering why you shouldn’t be voting One Nation, there is a pretty good reason.”
But he once again stopped short of declaring One Nation should sit at the bottom of any Liberal party how-to-vote cards. “I am not interested in getting One Nation’s preferences, I am interested in getting their primary vote,” he said.
“I won’t put up with it. That is why I don’t want their preferences, I want their primary votes because that is the right thing for Australia.”
Instead, Morrison maintained the line those decisions remained the decision of individual state branches, despite public calls from members of his own party to put One Nation last, and escalating attacks from Labor on the issue.
Morrison picked up a line put forward by Peter Dutton in the days following the Christchurch attack, criticising the Greens for opposing national security legislation and supporting death taxes, despite having repeatedly pleaded for an end to Australia’s “mindless tribalism” in political discourse.
“Now, do you think the Labor party should be putting the Greens ahead of the Liberal party? Fair question – there are plenty of extreme views out there and those extreme views that are a danger [to] Australia are not hostage to the left or the right of Australian politics.”
Morrison and Dutton have not been alone in defending the Liberals bet hedging with One Nation preferences by equating the Hanson party with the Greens, with Michael Keenan, the minister for human services and digital transformation, telling Sky News something similar on Tuesday morning.
“Well, the Greens I think are more dangerous than One Nation in many ways. I mean they would close down whole sections of the Australian economy,” he said.
One Nation has responded by referring the report to the Australian federal police and security agencies over whether it amounted to “foreign interference into Australian politics”.
“One Nation strongly supports the rights of lawful gun ownership within Australia and have clearly outlined our policy on our website. One Nation members have always complied with the law,” the party said in a statement.
Ashby and Dickson are due to respond in person to the questions raised in the Al Jazeera report late on Tuesday afternoon.
