Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party has made a late change switching preferencing to ensure Liberals are second in key seats which are under threat by Labor or an independent.
The party is authorising the change of “how to vote” cards in at least ten marginal electorates to give Opposition Leader Peter Dutton the chance of an upper hand to secure key seats, the Daily Telegraph reports.
More electorates are under review to determine if the Coalition would benefit from One Nation preference flows.
Mr Dutton’s own Queensland seat of Dickson is under threat as he holds it by a slim 1.7 per cent.
One Nation has stepped in just hours before pre-polling kicks off on Tuesday, ensuring the seat has a “2” preference behind the Liberals.
Prior to the change Mr Dutton was due to be ranked “4” by One Nation, still ahead of Labor and the Greens.
Liberal and Nationals candidates will also be made preference second in the New South Wales seats of Hunter, Paterson, Shortland, Whitlam and Calare, Queensland’s Blair, Monash and Bruce in Victoria, and Lyons in Tasmania.
The “how to vote” card is not required to follow; however, many Australians do, meaning preference decisions can influence tight contests.
In a show of changing times, in 2001 then prime minister John Howard, said One Nation should be put “last” in every seat.
Senator Hanson told Sky News on Sunday night she is very pleased the Liberal Party is working with her party.
“We are the only conservative party that is prepared to keep the Coalition on track, so they don’t go too far to the left,” she said.
“We are the ones out there pushing for the family values, the Australian patriotism, that we are standing up for the values of what it is to be an Australian.
“The Coalition has picked up some of our policies, so it only makes common sense they would actually support us.”
The Coalition pledges to halve the fuel excise from 50.8c to 25.4c for 12 months, saving motorists on average $750.
While pledging to build seven nuclear reactors upwards of $331 billion by 2050 and spend $5 billion to fund infrastructure to support 500,000 new home builds.
Mr Dutton vows to drop permanent visas for two years, from 185,000 to 140,000.
As polls have shown the Liberals are lagging behind Labor in every published result, a boost from One Nation could be significant for the Liberals to gain key votes.
Nationally Ms Hanson’s party is currently polling about eight per cent.
One Nation’s preference shake up came after the Coalition listed Ms Hanson’s party “2” on 139 out of 147 lower house seats this federal election.
The latest Newspoll revealed the Albanese government retaining a two-party preferred lead of 52 to 48 over the Coalition.
Labor’s healthy lead in recent polls is not assured victory with Anthony Albanese saying on Monday the mountain is still yet to be climbed.
“We have a mountain to climb,” he said.
“We are a couple of steps up that mountain, but there’s a long way to go.”
