‘We Could Be Their Best Friends’: One Nation Candidate Calls for Conservative, Right-Wing Alliance

It comes after the Australia First Alliance was announced in an attempt to bring some unity to the country’s right-wing parties.

One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson meets local supporters during a barbeque in Buderim in Sunshine Coast, Australia, on Sept. 21, 2017. Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

One Nation Victoria’s President Warren Pickering is calling on fellow right-leaning parties to work together where policies align.

The minor party Senate candidate says One Nation will push to cap migration visas to 130,000 per year to ease pressure on housing, wages, and infrastructure, noting there were many other areas where policies overlap.

“We could be their [other conservative and right-wing parties] best friends,” he told The Epoch Times.

“We could help them flip seats in their favour, and hold them to account in the Senate with the balance of power.

“But they'd have to work with us, and they haven’t shown evidence of wanting to do that as yet.”

One Nation Victoria's President Warren Pickering speaks at an event on the steps of Victoria's state parliament building in Melbourne, Australia. Courtesy of Warren Pickering

One of the ongoing issues plaguing Australia’s right-wing has been the sheer volume of minor parties (about 10) competing for the same voters, and often directly against the centre-right Liberal Party, instead of the centre-left to left.

While on average, Australia’s right is often able to win about 10 percent of the total popular vote during most elections, the long term impact can be handicapped by their differing directions (including governance, marketing, and preference deals).

In contrast, the Greens and “teal” independents, which sit on the left edge of the political spectrum, are often more unified and direct their preferences in a more cohesive manner to influence electoral results.

Both parties were integral to eroding the Liberal Party’s vote at the 2022 federal election, and helping Labor win power.

Pickering believes there is plenty of potential among Australia’s minor conservative parties to put up a similar united front.

Other small conservative parties in Victoria are Family First, Libertarian, and Freedom Party.

Focus on Energy and Youth Crime

Meanwhile, One Nation’s Pickering says it will deport 75,000 illegal immigrants; bring an end to cheap foreign labour; introduce an eight-year waiting period for citizenship and welfare; and refuse entry to migrants from nations known to foster extremist ideologies.

Energy (cost of living) and youth crime are two other areas where Pickering says the party will put its focus.

The president says if he wins a Senate seat, he will advocate for an end to net zero, and promote more gas, uranium, and coal production.

“We’ve got 500 years worth of minerals left in the ground at current demand. So it’s a finite resource,” he said.

“You can ban them from digging it up and burning it in Australia, but they’re still going to export it. Just like we do with uranium.

“So it’s blatant hypocrisy for us to sit on our moral high horse and spit vitriol about, ‘Look at us, we’re not burning coal anymore,’ or ‘Look at us, we don’t have nuclear.’”

The Australia First Alliance

His comments come after the announcement of the Australia First Alliance aimed at unifying the plethora of right-wing parties in the country.

“We are thrilled to announce that, as part of the Australia First Alliance, the NSW Libertarian Party will be running a joint Senate ticket in New South Wales alongside the HEART Party [formerly the Informed Medical Options Party] and Gerard Rennick People First,” the Libertarians wrote on X.

“For years, members of the broader freedom movement have called for greater cooperation between like-minded parties, and we’ve listened.”

All three parties will retain their own marketing brands and field lower house candidates, but will unite for the Senate.

Their Senate ticket runs in this order: 1. Craig Kelly (Libertarian), 2. Michael O'Neill (HEART), 3. Gerard Rennick People First candidate, 4. Libertarian candidate, and 5. HEART candidate.