Perth MPs in One Nation’s sights hit back as Hanson show leaves town

West Australian Labor politicians have hit back after One Nation leader Pauline Hanson put their seats in the party’s sights during a whirlwind trip to Perth this week.

Hanson revealed the party would focus its efforts on the federal Labor strongholds of Brand and Cowan, telling 6PR’s Simon Beaumont that One Nation had installed a stronger vetting process to make sure the party has the best possible candidates for Western Australia.

“We’ve actually got a new vetting process now, it’s extremely hardcore vetting of candidates that we’ve got standing for us now,” she said.

“So far, for the next federal election, we’ve had 1500 people who want to be candidates.”

However, Brand MP Madeleine King said One Nation was “only focused on themselves and their own interests”, and insisted Labor was focused on delivering policies.

“One Nation offers anger – but they don’t offer any answers. Just like their mates in the Liberal Party, they have consistently opposed cost-of-living relief for Australians,” she said.

“They have an appalling record on pay and job security for workers, they oppose increases to the minimum wage and they want to make it easier to sack people.”

Meanwhile, Cowan MP Anne Aly said her electorate was not a political experiment for One Nation.

“I know this community, and I know its strength. Cowan is proudly multicultural, hardworking and generous,” she said.

“People from all backgrounds live, work and contribute here; and I will always stand up for that. This community deserves respect, not One Nation division.

“My focus is on delivering for local families, strengthening Medicare, supporting small businesses and making sure the people of Cowan have a strong voice in government.”

Perth MP Patrick Gorman told Sky News he was concerned some of One Nation’s plans would send a wrecking ball through the WA economy.

“When you start to stop the ability to get the skills and knowledge that we need to grow the critical minerals sector here in Western Australia,” he said.

“That will result in huge job losses on top of One Nation’s plans where they’ve already said they don’t support increasing wages for low-income workers and people on award wages. It is serious stuff.”

However, Gorman observed that Hanson’s visit was a rarity which had sparked political interest in WA.

“When you think about Senator Hanson as leader of the One Nation political party, she doesn’t spend a lot of time here in the West,” he said.

“So I’m not surprised on a rare occasional visit that she gets a bit of attention.”

Hanson was due to fly back east at the end of the week following a visit that was met by protests and included a speech on Thursday in which the One Nation leader divulged that she had experienced domestic violence in the past.

Her trip came amid a massive fundraising drive by the party, which claims to have raised more than $2 million in the space of days, although Australian Labor Party president Wayne Swan was sceptical of that figure, saying on Friday it was a “complete smoke screen” which covered up donations from billionaire backers including Gina Rinehart.

On Thursday, WA teal Kate Chaney, the member for Curtin, told Sky News there was a “more constructive way” to channel the energy of voter discontent than via One Nation.

“At the last election, one-third of people voted for someone other than a major party, it’s now a half, so that’s growing” she said.

“The question is where that frustration gets focused.

“At the moment, some of it’s parked with One Nation, but what I saw in my community is it led to a community movement that said, ‘We don’t like what’s on offer, so we’re going to take matters into our own hands, form a group and find a candidate that represents us’. I think that’s a more constructive way to channel that energy.”

Chaney said her constituents were worried about Australia becoming more like the US, and that people wanted to feel “connected, informed and hopeful”.

Hanson’s international student comments ‘as predictable as they are wrong’

Meanwhile, the One Nation leader’s stance on higher education has also been panned, with the WA secretary of the National Tertiary Education Union saying international students were “not a problem be solved”.

On the eve of Hanson’s arrival in Perth, she said international students should be made to return to their countries of origin before applying to study further in Australia.

The statement, which dovetailed with One Nation’s broader immigration policy, said the move would “prevent abuse of the immigration system and reduce the backlog in deporting unlawful non-citizens”, and that universities had become addicted to easy foreign student money.

“It’s apparent that when it comes to some of these students, there’s no intention to study and every intention of abusing the system to access economic benefits and high Australian wages,” Hanson wrote.

“There’s been an explosion of foreign students abusing the system with ‘course-hopping’.

“They get a student visa, drop out soon after and apply to a bunch of bogus schools or courses while remaining on a bridging visa which allows them to work and access housing and services in Australia.”

But National Tertiary Education Union WA division secretary Scott Fitzgerald said the comments were “as predictable as they are wrong”.

“International students are not a problem to be solved. They are our neighbours, colleagues, and a cornerstone of WA’s economy,” he said.

“Here in WA, international students fill critical skills gaps in health, engineering and education, and inject hundreds of millions of dollars into local communities every year.”

Fitzgerald said Hanson spoke about universities being “addicted to foreign student money as though that’s a scandal” – but the real scandal was that decades of federal government underfunding had forced universities to become dependent on international student fees to keep the lights on and fund research.

“If Hanson is genuinely concerned about that dynamic, she should be calling for proper public investment in universities, not scapegoating the students themselves,” he said.

“They deserve dignity and a fair go, not to be used as political fodder by a senator hunting for easy targets.”

Curtin University Student Guild president Dylan Storer accused One Nation of engaging in racist scapegoating dressed up as migration policy.

“International students are not statistics to be weaponised or political punching bags to be used for headlines. They are our classmates, friends, housemates, colleagues and community members,” he said.

“The truth is that international students are far more often exploited by the system than exploiting it. They are charged significantly higher fees, treated as revenue by many universities, and then blamed by politicians when that broken system fails.

“That is laziness, not leadership.”

Get the day’s breaking news, entertainment ideas and a long read to enjoy. Sign up to receive our Evening Edition newsletter.