Prime Minister Scott Morrison has rebuffed suggestions coalition MPs could be disadvantaged at the election after Pauline Hanson indicated One Nation would preference Labor over the Liberals in key seats.
It comes after Senator Hanson accused the government of doing a “dirty deal with the devil” by telling voters to preference the Jacquie Lambie Network in the Tasmanian Senate race ahead of One Nation.
In an interview with The Australian, Senator Hanson said she would look to punish Liberals in marginal seats, particularly in Queensland and Victoria.
However, Mr Morrison said he was not overly concerned about the preference deals.
“There’s further information to come on that, particularly in relation to Queensland, there’s different arrangements in different states and territories,” Mr Morrison told reporters in Cairns on Thursday.
“That’s just all politics, what matters is the choice Australians have to make.”
Among the seats most at risk by the preference deal are the Liberal electorates of Bass in Tasmania, held by Bridget Archer by just 0.4 per cent, and Leichhardt in Queensland, held by 4.2 per cent by Warren Entsch.
One Nation is also set to preference Labor over Liberals in inner-city electorates where coalition candidates are facing challenges from independents, such as Goldstein and North Sydney.
One Nation still plans to support Liberal conservatives and Nationals over ALP candidates.
“Labor is rotten to the core but the Liberals are just as bad because they only pretend to fight for conservative Australian values,” Senator Hanson told The Australian.
“Their hypocritical deal with JLN is the last nail in the Morrison government’s coffin.”
While One Nation has indicated where its preferences would go to in key seats, it is still only a suggestion to voters ahead of the election.
Shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers told the Nine Network that Labor would not seek to do any preference deals with One Nation.
“Historically that’s been one of the stands we’ve taken,” he said.
“We don’t control the preferences that come to us, but we don’t do deals with her.”
Tasmanian independent senator Jacqui Lambie hit back at the suggestions from One Nation that the Liberals had done a “deal with the devil” in telling voters to preference JLN candidates.
“That’s the pot calling the kettle black,” Senator Lambie told the Nine Network.
“When you are a mainlander and trying to run a campaign down here, it makes it very difficult, and it is only a two-horse race down here … Pauline has just woken up to that and it has hit her hard.”
The prime minister used talks about the preference deal to warn about voting for independents and minor parties.
“I understand that Australians feel frustrated about many things, I share those frustrations,” he said.
“But the way you respond to that is not to create chaos and uncertainty, but to actually lock in further security and certainty.”
Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce said it was a decision for One Nation, but the worst outcome would be more independent MPs “running around like mad chooks”.
