‘Smarmy management consultant’: Hanson attacks Taylor, Liberals in fiery CPAC speech

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has offered to set aside her grievances with the Liberal Party to form government after the next election despite blaming the Coalition for her brief jail stint in the early 2000s. She has also promised to establish a royal commission into net zero.

In a speech to the faithful at this weekend’s Conservative Political Action Conference in Brisbane, she repeatedly attacked Opposition Leader Angus Taylor, calling him a “smarmy management consultant” who was not fit to replace Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

“I know what it means to put personal history aside and turn the other cheek,” Hanson told the conference. “The Liberal Party threw me out. Then they threw me in jail. My convictions were overturned, but my family went through more than most people will ever, ever know.”

“So yes. I do have reasons to hold a grudge, but I also have children and grandchildren. Their futures and your futures matter more. If I can put personal grievances aside for the sake of this country, others should be able to do the same. And before anyone gets the wrong idea, nobody has ever accused me of being a pushover, and I don’t expect that to start today.”

Hanson, Taylor and Nationals leader Matt Canavan were the main attractions at this year’s CPAC national conference, the first time a sitting Liberal leader addressed the room. While Taylor was billed as the keynote speaker, the ascendant Hanson attracted the warmest responses from the crowd.

In a sprawling address that covered freedom of speech, housing affordability and the establishment of a nuclear energy industry in Australia, Hanson promised to come after Energy Minister Chris Bowen through the establishment of a royal commission into net zero should she win the next election.

“Every secret meeting behind closed doors will be revealed, and every dollar taken away from taxpayers that left power bills higher will be accounted for,” Hanson told an uproarious crowd who almost universally cheered whenever any speaker mentioned their intentions to scrap net zero.

“Every decision the uni-party has made to sell our country out will be exposed. And ministers like Chris Bowen, who signed off on these dodgy deals and kept them secret, will be held accountable.”

Speaking from Sydney, Bowen ridiculed the gathering and criticised Taylor for being the first Liberal leader to address a conference deemed too right-wing for his predecessors.

“We’re going to see a whole bunch of crazy over the next few days as the Liberal Party and the One Nation Party try to outdo each other on the race to the right, and the race to the bottom,” Bowen said, claiming Hanson’s royal commission would hurt farmers seeking to “diversify their income”.

Hanson also hammered the Liberal Party for a number of climate policies under their last term in government, including signing up to the Paris Agreement, espousing net zero and legislating the safeguard mechanism.

Speaking before Hanson, Taylor pre-empted much of the criticism, acknowledging the mistakes of the former Coalition government, including “more-than-was-needed” spending during the COVID pandemic, signing up to next zero, and “allowing immigration numbers to creep up, especially student and bridging visas”.

“Under my leadership, we are a different and, I strongly believe, a better Liberal Party,” Taylor said. “Now, I acknowledge that some of you may have doubts, but if you believe our country can change for the better, then believe that the Liberal Party can too. Together with Matt Canavan’s leadership at the Nationals, the Coalition is once again conviction-led and unashamedly on the right.”

The Liberal leader also framed the next election as a “spiritual fight” for the soul of the nation, as he and Canavan criticised the “socialist” Albanese government for failing Australian industry.

Before entering politics, Taylor served as a management consultant and partner at McKinsey. During his address he said his business experience gave him an edge as a leader, after repeatedly criticising government ministers for holding lengthy careers in representative politics.

Former Today Show host Karl Stefanovic – who had a lengthy career at Nine Entertainment, owner of this masthead – held interviews with the three leaders following their addresses. Hanson congratulated the morning-television-star turned podcast host for his move to the right in public discourse, saying: “It’s great to see that you’ve actually come on the right side of politics. You’ve become more conservative, and that’s great to see.”

While Taylor remained evasive under questioning over dealmaking with One Nation – to heckling from the audience – Hanson used her speech to signal her support for the Coalition making to defeat Labor. Canavan said parties fighting each other amounted to “getting distracted on side quests” which would do nothing to help remove Albanese from leadership.

Hanson was disendorsed by the Liberal Party in 1996 by then-opposition leader John Howard, before that year’s election, for comments she made about Aboriginal Australians. She was subsequently sentenced to a three-year jail term after being found guilty of electoral fraud, though the conviction was later overturned, and Hanson was released less than three months into her term.

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