New leadership team better for Hanson’s chances at poll

Pauline Hanson has conceded that One Nation would have struggled against a Peter Dutton-led Coalition at the next election.

Pauline Hanson says the new prime minister is a ‘Malcolm Turnbull clone’. Picture: AAP

Pauline Hanson has targeted Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg as the architects of the Turnbull government’s most divisive policies after conceding that One Nation would have struggled against a Peter Dutton-led Coalition at the next election.

With Liberal National Party fears of losing a swag of its marginal seats in Queensland amid a splintering conservative vote, the One Nation leader last night launched her election attack on the new prime minister as a ­“Malcolm Turnbull clone’’.

“Scott Morrison was the architect of the big corporate tax cuts and Josh Frydenberg is the architect of the NEG, that the country and his party didn’t want,’’ she said.

“People see through this, they don’t forget that and in Queensland he won’t do as well as Dutton, who does share a lot of the policies positions and conservative views as One Nation.’’

The leadership challenges from Mr Dutton were touted as the only hope of blunting One Nation’s popularity, which has cut the LNP’s primary vote and led to losses at last year’s state election and the recent Longman by-election.

The challenge was backed by the LNP organisation in Queensland, with state president Gary Spence taking the extraordinary step yesterday of issuing a three-page letter to its membership praising Mr Dutton for instigating the challenge.

In the letter, Mr Spence said frustrated voters were drifting to minor parties and that the Longman by-election — pitched as a leadership contest between Mr Turnbull and Labor leader Bill Shorten — had delivered a warning of a looming disaster for the LNP at the general election.

GRAPHIC: The One Nation threat

The LNP holds 21 of Queensland’s 30 federal seats, with eight sitting on margins of 4 per cent or less.

“I wish to acknowledge Peter Dutton,’’ Mr Spence wrote. “Without his intervention the circumstances that have now been resolved may have continued through to the next election.”

The letter laid out policy areas for Mr Morrison that have been controversial for the Turnbull government including energy, cuts to Catholic school funding, superannuation changes and immigration.

Mr Spence called for an energy policy “focused on price”, a policy that respected the savings of retirees and “fairer redistribution’’ across the education sector, ­“including Catholic schools’’, and an immigration policy that took into account service delivery.

The leaked letter quickly drew criticism from within the federal parliamentary team over its policy prescription to an ­incoming prime minister, and its signalling out for MPs and senators who signed the petition for the spill ­motion.

This week, the consensus among LNP and Labor strategists and political commentators was that a Dutton-led government would likely have helped incumbent ­Coalition MPs in regional areas and Brisbane’s fringes.

But Mr Dutton’s uncompromising rhetoric and hardline stand on immigration, and public opposition to marriage equality, was also perceived as damaging the LNP’s re-election chances in ­urban seats such as Brisbane and Bonner.

An LNP strategist last night said the urban fringe seats of Dickson, held by Mr Dutton, and ­Petrie, as well as the regional seats of Flynn and Capricornia were among those in danger.

Senator Hanson said One ­Nation would be running candidates across the state, including in the northern seat of Dawson, held by outspoken Nationals MP ­George Christensen.

“We are going to run hard, and I can’t think many people are going to go back to the Coalition unless they start changing their policies to our way of thinking on immigration, backing coal-fired power stations and cutting power prices,’’ she said.