‘Performative promises … have no place’: Liberals slam Hanson’s call to jail Andrews, Allen

Federal Liberals say One Nation’s call to jail former Victorian premiers Daniel Andrews and Jacinta Allan exposes the risk of handing power to Pauline Hanson as the prison threat reveals another point of difference between Coalition defector Barnaby Joyce and his new party.

Prominent One Nation figure Mark Nicholson, who created the cartoons in which Liberal MP Andrew Hastie was labelled a traitor, made the remarks at the party’s state election launch.

Mimicking Donald Trump’s line on locking up Hillary Clinton, Nicholson declared “heads are going to roll”.

“Dan Andrews, Jacinta Allan – they’re going to be in prison by Christmas,” he said at Crown on Saturday. “This is a revolution. This is a movement. And this is how, together, we can take Victoria back.”

Victorian senator James Paterson, an ally of Opposition Leader Angus Taylor, said Victorians deserved justice for “what has happened over the last 12 years” under Labor.

“But the best way to deliver that is with Jess Wilson’s plan for a real royal commission to get to the bottom of what Andrews and Allan did, lawfully. Performative promises to lock up your political opponents have no place in a liberal democracy,” he said.

Nobody from One Nation, which is ahead of the Coalition in the state polls, has sought to clarify Nicholson’s statement or explain if it constitutes an actual pledge to push for prosecutions against Andrews and Allan.

New England MP Barnaby Joyce tried to distance himself from Nicholson. “It wasn’t Pauline that said that – it was one of the candidates,” Joyce told the Seven Network before calling the Andrews and Allan administrations disastrous for Victoria.

Instead of trying to downplay and ignore Nicholson’s statement, One Nation strategists running Hanson’s social media pages have been blasting out the jail time call to their large following.

“We’re not pulling our punches in Victoria,” it said in one post which included a screenshot of an article titled “In prison by Christmas”.

Joyce previously expressed private worry about the idea of net negative migration, which Hanson ultimately adopted as policy. In another display of tension, Joyce was critical of Hanson’s decision to meet with far-right provocateur and criminal Tommy Robinson.

Victorian Premier Ben Carroll told ABC Radio that Nicholson’s comments were “appalling”, even as he opens up a royal commission into corruption that could call Andrews and Allan as witnesses.

“We have a rule of law here,” Carroll said. “That just showed why [Victorian Opposition Leader] Jess Wilson needs to rule out once and for all doing a coalition with them.”

“At least federal Liberals will call out One Nation.”

At the same event on Saturday, leader Pauline Hanson invoked the famous bushranger Ned Kelly even as she pledged a crackdown on crime.

Conservative Queensland MP Garth Hamilton said Nicholson’s remarks were a sign of how Hanson would govern.

“This gives a view of what sort of government they would form,” he said. “A vindictive one that crosses the line between executive and judiciary.”

One Nation insisted it would pay commercial rent after it emerged that the party’s billionaire patron, mining magnate Gina Rinehart, purchased an $8 million office building in Brisbane that will serve as the party’s new headquarters.

Hanson has also been campaigning to support former Victoria Cross winner Ben Roberts-Smith as legal figures and her political opponents have asked her to respect the ongoing criminal case.

A 63-page policy document entitled The Real Deal outlines One Nation’s plan to make Victoria the toughest state on crime, repeal a raft of taxes, cancel the Suburban Rail Loop, rip up the Treaty with First Nations Victorians and roll back renewable energy projects while lifting the state’s ban on nuclear power.

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