Updated August 31, 2026 — 5:08pm,first published 11:29am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. AAA Pauline Hanson’s personal protection detail has increased following threats against her, as the One Nation leader claimed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had incited violence by describing her
Updated ,first published
Pauline Hanson’s personal protection detail has increased following threats against her, as the One Nation leader claimed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had incited violence by describing her as dangerous.
This masthead can reveal that Hanson’s security detail has increased from the usual two or three federal police to include as many as a dozen officers, including some undercover. Deputy leader Barnaby Joyce also has an occasional security detail, as the party’s leadership has become the target of protests following surging popularity in the polls.
Albanese used a speech on the weekend to attack One Nation and its leader for sowing division, but Hanson fired back on Monday, just days after her party’s first successful foray into Labor heartland outside Queensland – winning the West Australian state byelection in Secret Harbour – and a Victorian campaign event where she drove a nail into, and later buried, a coffin labelled “net zero”.
“The incitement that is happening is through our educational system and a prime minister who should know better than that,” Hanson said on Monday at a press conference in Gippsland, east of Melbourne, before demanding Albanese take “full responsibility” for threats made against her.
“I think he’s a pathetic prime minister. He’s not the leader of this nation. You don’t go out saying those things, and they’re all scared. They’re scared because now we’ve won a safe Labor seat, and this is worrying them.”
Speaking on Sunday at Labor’s Queensland state conference, Albanese said Hanson sought “to divide Australians” and “talks Australia down both here and overseas”.
“Parties like One Nation have no serious answers to our problems,” Albanese said. “Their own divisions and disagreements are now showing through. They think Australians are lazy and overpaid. That people working from home are bludging. That domestic violence is sometimes a woman’s fault. That we should, somehow, become a monoculture.”
Joyce told this masthead that “I think we have to go back to our primal nature as Australians – laconic, cheeky, but we don’t hurt people”.
“Right now you have Albanese giving a speech not on policy, but on what he believes is a fundamental character malfeasance of One Nation. That’s the wrong approach, PM. You can fight us on policy, but you can’t just say we’re evil,” Joyce said.
“Remember when Mr Albanese makes a judgment about One Nation, he’s made a judgment about 30 per cent of Australia. There are parties on the ballot paper who are nut jobs and people don’t vote for them. One Nation is the most conservative party in Australia, but it’s not an evil party, it’s not promulgating hate.”
Hanson cited the death of conservative British politician Ann Widdecombe as a warning over the danger of violent political rhetoric. Widdecombe was found dead in her home in July, having suffered a serious injury to her head. A man has been charged with her murder and is expected to face trial next year.
Threats against MPs have been steadily escalating recently. There are about 20 ongoing court matters across the country in which people are accused of making violent threats against Albanese. Nearly 40 people have been charged with Commonwealth crimes since September last year for threatening MPs and other high office holders.
One of the threatened MPs, Liberal frontbencher Andrew Hastie, has been afforded additional security. Sources told this masthead Hastie believed the decision was driven by an orchestrated campaign against him online that had been fuelled by One Nation and its supporters over the Ben Roberts-Smith saga.
On August 20, Perth man Anton Raymond Illich, 47, appeared in court charged with threatening to kill Hanson. He is alleged to have threatened her on Facebook, including a claim he said he would “hunt her down”.
He is scheduled to appear again in October.
The prime minister is travelling to the Pacific Islands Forum in Palau and did not respond.
Assistant Minister Patrick Gorman said Hanson had also sought to fan outrage and dissent.
“I have found some of the stunts Hanson has done over the years, including in the Senate chamber, to be not consistent with the effort to make sure we bring Australians together and do our politics respectfully,” he said.
“I welcome Senator Hanson in joining the government in saying we can do politics in a more respectful way, and I hope that is a standard she sets for all her MPs and all the candidates she endorses.”
One Nation won the West Australian state byelection in the previously safe Labor seat of Secret Harbour on Saturday, with an enormous swing towards new MP Luke Herdegen.
However, the day’s success was hampered by a report in The Saturday Paper that new MP David Farley was “poised” to quit the party and sit as an independent. The One Nation MP was elected in May at the Farrer byelection, the first time the party had won a seat in the House of Representatives.
Farley told this masthead that “speculation of my departure from One Nation are without fact or truth” and that he remained focused on the needs of people in his seat of Farrer.
“One Nation is the only political party with the political courage and tenacity to address the critical issues important to Farrer. What’s good for Farrer is good for the nation,” he said.
Hanson told radio station 2GB on Monday that she had spoken to Farley on Sunday, and that he had confirmed he wouldn’t be moving to the crossbench. “David’s not going anywhere,” Hanson said. “He’s a team player.”
During her Monday press conference, Hanson railed against Labor’s renewables rollout, saying it was hampering industry, and campaigned for the rollout of nuclear energy in Victoria. Hanson and her Victorian leader Warren Pickering did not reveal costs associated with their energy policy.
Victorian state Energy and Resources Minister Jaclyn Symes said the state had the cheapest power in Australia because Labor has invested in renewables, the cheapest form of energy.
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James Massola is Chief Political Commentator. He has previously been National AffairsEditor and South-East Asia Correspondent, and has won Quill and Kennedy awards and is the 2026 Press Gallery Journalist of the Year. Connect securely on Signal @jamesmassola.01Connect via X or email.
Nick Newling is a federal politics reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X or email.From our partners
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