Media Go Hard With the Hatchets

As the saying goes, when you’re copping the most flak, you must be over the target. The legacy media’s ramping-up of their hit-pieces on One Nation are the clearest indication we have that the surging conservative upstarts are becoming an existential threat to the uniparty. So its most loyal attack terriers are yapping and spinning in circles for all they’re worth.

One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce has defended Pauline Hanson’s meeting with far-right British activist Tommy Robinson during a television interview that was twice interrupted by his dog.

On ABC’s 7.30 on Monday, Mr Joyce rejected suggestions the One Nation leader had crossed a “red line” by meeting with Robinson, who has a lengthy criminal record and has been condemned by British authorities over his role in encouraging anti-immigration demonstrations.

Demonstrations where tens of thousands of people marched entirely peacefully. As opposed to the immigrants who rioted in London, putting police officers in hospital – all with nary a peep from the government. As for Robinson’s criminal record – most of it clearly drummed-up charges by the authoritarian British state that turns a blind eye to the industrial-scale rape of underage British girls by migrants – would the ABC throw the same mud at one of the most high-profile members of the Albanese government, who is actually married to a convicted heroin smuggler?

It’s a silly attempt at an attack, which only shows how desperately scared the establishment really is.

[Sarah Ferguson] repeatedly redirected the discussion to Senator Hanson’s own actions and comments during the trip, including footage of her driving through predominantly Muslim neighbourhoods in Britain and criticising what she saw.

Well, why shouldn’t she? When British suburbs resemble some mediaeval Middle Eastern kakistocracy, brimming with women in black tents and, as we now know, heavily populated with vicious, racist child-rapists, any sane person would criticise it.

The ABC presenter asked Mr Joyce whether he agreed with Senator Hanson’s characterisation of Muslims after Senator Hanson said in the program: “Muslims breed, and the taxpayer pays”.

Mr Joyce responded by saying problems arose when communities failed to assimilate, arguing “Balkanisation” created divisions that were “at odds with the egalitarian ethos of Australia”.

Where are either of them actually wrong?

The attacks just get even sillier and more unhinged.

One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce has lost his cool during a live television interview.

This was the line peddled by all the legacy media outlets, in blaring headlines. In a textbook exercise in what’s called ‘burying the lede’.

The former deputy prime minister was being grilled, as per usual, over Pauline Hanson’s perfectly reasonable meeting with Tommy Robinson and her observations of Britain’s no-go suburbs. Midway through answering, Joyce let rip with a piercing “Sit down!” Directed off camera, of course. He immediately explained: “Sorry, it’s the dog.” Later he apologised again for the mutt “bail[ing] up”. Ferguson, never one to miss a chance to scold the natives, snapped that he should ignore the dog and answer her. Joyce’s reply was pure gold: “Don’t be rude Sarah or this interview will grind to a halt.”

Cue the media’s collective pearl-clutching. “Lost his cool!” “Fiery outburst!” “Red-faced!” They ran the dog-yell as if Joyce had lunged across the desk and throttled the presenter. Only later, deep in the copy, did they concede the obvious: a working dog in a farmhouse interview got a bit rowdy. Country blokes have been telling dogs to sit down since the Federation. The real story was the ABC’s desperate attempt to turn a non-event into evidence of instability.

At least, unlike leftist darling Hasan Piker, he didn’t electrocute it with a shock collar.

Hanson, characteristically, treated it with the contempt it deserved. “You have to love live TV from home,” she posted with the clip. “Poor Barnaby had to put up with his dog distracting him, during an already hostile ABC interview.” Exactly: the dog was the least hostile presence in that interview.

While the uniparty’s media arm froths over canine discipline, Hanson is doing what actual political leaders used to do: listening to the people who pay the bills.

Pauline Hanson will embark on a national listening tour over the rest of 2026 as she looks to build the surging party’s suite of policies.

In an address to a business breakfast in Perth on Tuesday morning, Senator Hanson said she would be travelling the country between now and Christmas seeking the input of Australians.

“We will be asking one question. What’s holding you back? […]”

She said she wanted to hear the problems and ideas of Australians and return the nation to a country that “makes things, builds things, and rewards the people who take a risk”.

“We can hand our kids a better deal than we got, instead of the other way around. That’s what’s happening now, for the first time in our history. The country is heading in the wrong direction,” she said.

“This Labor government is making us poorer, weaker and less safe. It’s time to fix that. Now it’s your turn to talk. What’s holding you back?”

From those answers, One Nation will build its full election platform. No focus-group pap. No consultant waffle. Just the concerns of Australians who still believe this country should make things, build things and reward those who take risks.

Outside, a few hundred professional protestors and their taxpayer-funded minders staged the usual pantomime. Inside, the audience knew the score. One even shouted “No!” during the obligatory Acknowledgement of Country. The times, they are a-changin’.

The more the ABC and its uniparty masters shriek about Tommy Robinson, “red lines” and dogs that won’t sit, the clearer it becomes: One Nation is over the target. And the flak is only going to get thicker.