One Nation’s Pauline Hanson aims for Labor’s heartland selling herself as leader of working Australians
ONE Nation leader Pauline Hanson is diving into Labor’s heartland and selling herself as the real leader of working Australians with aspirations — nurses, electricians, plumbers, high school teachers and welders.
NSW
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PAULINE Hanson is fighting to win the hearts and votes of blue-collar battlers while pitting herself over federal Labor leader Bill Shorten as the real leader of working Aussies with aspirations.
The One Nation leader, who will today call on all politicians to give up their pay rises to charity, has accused Mr Shorten of being a “hypocrite” for denying tax cuts to battlers while personally pocketing a $7000 salary rise this year.
The spotlight has fallen on Senator Hanson who is at the centre of a tug of war between Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Mr Shorten over her crucial vote on the government’s $140 billion personal income tax cut package.
A victory for the Prime Minister would see him run an election campaign based on the message that Labor would repeal tax cuts for 94 per cent of Australians.
In expressing support for tax cuts for “hard-working Australians”, Senator Hanson launched a scathing attack on Mr Shorten for abandoning the battlers he is meant to represent as part of Labor’s cynical political ploy to sabotage the Government.
“Bill Shorten will pocket an increase of over $7000 from 1 July 2018, but says those who work long hours do not deserve a tax cut of a similar amount,” she said.
“These are your voters and yet you are denying the people you are supposed to support — the battlers.
“It’s not a fortune that they’re making.”
Senator Hanson is competing with Labor for blue-collar voters in the Queensland by-election of Longman, sparked by the resignation of dual-citizen Labor MP Susan Lamb.
Mr Shorten returned fire and said it was Senator Hanson who had forgotten to “back the battlers.”
“I’ve just got a message for Pauline Hanson. Pauline, remember who voted for you, you’re meant to be this champion of Queensland battlers; 1.9 million Queenslanders would be better off under Labor’s tax plan than the government’s,” he said.
“But it seems that now she’s come to Canberra she’s forgotten who’s put her there.
“That’s a recipe for disaster. I’d just say to Senator Hanson back the battlers, Labor will, let’s back them together.”
But Mr Turnbull launched a similar assault to Senator Hanson’s on the Opposition leader in Question time.
“We’ve just heard from this slimy, insinuating, patronising Leader of the Opposition that they believe that 60-year-old workers should stay in their place,” he said.
“Let me tell you, I’ve been 60 and I know, 60-year-olds have plenty of energy and plenty of ambition. There’s a lot of them, and they’re going to come after you at the next election.”
Relaunching herself as the “Senator for Australia”, Senator Hanson told The Daily Telegraph Mr Shorten, Mr Turnbull and politicians should give up their 2 per cent pay rise this year.
“I am challenging every politician in the house to donate their pay rises and if they don’t they are nothing but hypocrites and do not support the battlers of this country,” she said.
Senator Hanson described the Labor Party as “the scarecrow with no brains” and the Liberals a “like the tin man with no heart”, saying it was why voters were turning to minor parties like hers.
Senate leader Mathias Cormann is moving to introduce the tax package to the Senate tomorrow, to secure Senator Hanson’s vote.