PETER VAN ONSELEN: How Albo's political machine will try to destroy Pauline Hanson. She's surging - but insiders noticed a vulnerability in her National Press Club speech

By PETER VAN ONSELEN, POLITICAL EDITOR, AUSTRALIA Published: 05:11, 22 June 2026 | Updated: 05:11, 22 June 2026 Pauline Hanson's greatest political strength is that she sounds like she has lived her arguments. She has an authenticity that polished up, major party politicians lack. She doesn't speak like a consultant or like she's delivering sanitised talking points. Hanson sounds and acts like someone who ran a small business, raised kids and took life's knocks. This authenticity is why voters listen when she talks about issues such as immigration, housing and the cost of living.  The One Nation leader offers blunt answers to people who feel that mainstream politics has become an elaborate exercise in ignoring the masses. She has a point.  But the same life story that empowers Hanson also creates significant risk for her, when the topic turns to women, work and families. During her highly disciplined National Press Club speech last week, Hanson pitched One Nation's core issues exactly as you might expect.  Paid parental leave wasn't in the speech, but it came up in the Q&A, and Hanson gave some forthright opinions that might rub some voters who would be tempted by One Nation the wrong way. Asked about state enforced paid parental leave, Hanson's small business reflex took over: why should businesses have to pay people when they aren't at work? Pauline Hanson 's greatest political strength is that she sounds like she has lived her arguments. She has an authenticity that polished up, major party politicians lack. But her greatest strength could be a weakness, too  This wasn't a crafted line. It was an instinct rooted in her fish and chip shop ethos of hard work, self-reliance and suspicion of government mandated generosity delivered at someone else's expense. For small-business owners drowning in compliance and costs, this wasn't a gaffe, it was a signal. Hanson was telling them that she still understands their struggle.  In her written speech she deliberately drew a contrast between her background in small business - and Albo's complete lack of such experience. Hanson speaks to an exposed class of sole traders, tradies, franchisees, farmers and shopkeepers who view every new entitlement as just another invoice in the mail that hikes their taxes. But there is also a danger in such messaging - and one Albanese's Labor is paying close attention to.  Modern families don't live in Hanson's pre-1996 fish shop economy.  Two incomes are no longer a lifestyle choice - they are often the only way to survive crushing mortgages, savage rents, grocery bills, insurance premiums and childcare costs. For single parents, the difficulties are even greater.  Paid parental leave isn't some indulgent HR perk. For many families it's the difference between having a child and financial panic. By questioning it, Labor would note that Hanson risks sounding less like a small business realist and more like she's generationally out of touch. 'I did it hard, so why shouldn't you?, is how some voters might hear her comments. Albanese with his campaign 'brain' Paul Erickson - who is definitely thinking about the best way for Labor to tackle One Nation Labor might see Hanson's rhetorical flourish from last week as an opening. It's already hunting for votes amongst professional women, and outer-suburban two income families, knowing that the Liberal Party has spent years grappling with its 'women problem', made worse by low levels of female representation amongst its MPs. Not to mention in the wake of rolling its first female leader after less than two months as Opposition Leader. Hanson, of course, isn't just another bloke from the conservative boys' club as Angus Taylor is. She is a female political leader, a single mother, former small business owner and a well-worn political survivor. Nonetheless, her politics isn't built on solidarity with female voters. She doesn't use gender to prism her approach. For example, Hanson has long been comfortable speaking to the frustrations of separated fathers, men who believe the system is stacked against them, that child support is unfair and the family courts have become a hostile terrain. There are votes there. Many divorced and separated men feel unheard by mainstream politicians. But put that alongside her paid parental leave comments, childcare instincts and small government worldview, and a pattern emerges: Hanson may be a woman leading an emerging minor party threatening the majors, but many of her social policy instincts align more naturally with aggrieved men, small business owners and older voters than with younger working women. It's not necessarily fatal, but it is a sizeable part of the electorate that she is risking turning off.   That said, One Nation isn't trying to win teal seats in the affluent inner suburbs of major cities.  Hanson's voters are in the outer suburbs and regional towns, where the premise of modern Australia has started to look like a sick joke. For these voters, Hanson's suspicion of state funded entitlements might sound like common sense. Especially when paired with her attacks on immigration, debt and energy costs. But Hanson should tread carefully. Paid parental leave isn't easy to just dismiss as welfare largesse the same way the old age pension is. It sits at the intersection of work, family, fertility and workforce participation. It appeals not just to progressive women but to ordinary families who don't have the luxury of ideological purity.  Plenty of voters agree with Hanson on immigration and the like, but might be turned off voting for her if they think she's going to abolish paid parental leave or childcare subsidies. The sharpest attack isn't that Hanson is a woman hater, which is plainly ridiculous. It's that she is campaigning for nostalgic grievance, and advocating a policy manual for a society that no longer exists. Hanson is rising because millions of Australians privately agree with her on an host of issues.  But success brings closer scrutiny. The Press Club speech showed more discipline than Hanson's critics expected.  And most of the attempts to unpick her approach by callow press gallery journalists lining up for their moment during the Q&A probably did more to help Hanson's cause than hurt it. The GetUp protest banner certainly did. But there were some land mines amongst the questions asked, and paid parental leave is one of them. If One Nation wants to become a durable political force rather than just a protest vehicle, Hanson can't afford to sound indifferent to the pressures facing working women and young families. The comments below have not been moderated. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. 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