‘If you can’t govern your dog, you can’t govern the country’: Labor bites back at One Nation threat
The PM and Premier take aim at One Nation at the Labor Party Conference in Adelaide. The PM also announcing a new Fair Work Court and a SA woman winning the new presidency.
The surging One Nation, or “anti-Labor side of politics” was front of mind for Labor party faithful on Thursday, when its three-day conference kicked off with speeches from president Kate Ellis, SA Premier Peter Malinauskas and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
Malinauskas opened the major conference with a jab at One Nation deputy leader Barnaby Joyce’s 7:30 interview earlier this week.
“If you can’t govern your dog, you can’t govern the country,” Malinauskas said.
Joyce went viral on Tuesday evening after he interrupted a tense ABC TV interview to shout at his dog, then threatened it would come to a “grinding halt” after being pressed to ignore the animal and focus on a question.
The key gathering, held about once every three years, comes as the government seeks to fend off a challenge from Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, which has recorded surging support during 2026 among voters disillusioned with the major parties.
The Premier’s on stage moments at the party’s 50th national conference addressed the “utterly captivating” surge of conservative and the longevity and legacy of the Labor party.
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Albanese – who took the stage to the tune of 1985 pop rock ‘Sounds of Then (This is Australia)’ – announced a new Fair Work Court and expanding paid health placements in his address to a packed room of party faithful.
Earlier there was a hiccup as he entered the convention centre when the escalator suddenly stopped throwing him off balance.
Albanese said the new court “will be headed by expert judges working seamlessly with the Fair Work Commission, that will resolve disputes faster and at lower costs for both workers and employers”.
While students in 10 more study areas – including physiotherapy, clinical psychology, speech pathology, paramedics, audiology – would be eligible to receive $338.60 a week when they do practical placements.
As rumours circle around One Nation joining the Liberal-National Coalition federally, Albanese said “regardless of who leads the Liberals to the next election, in every way that matters, the Liberals, Nationals, and One Nation are already a coalition”.
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He claimed the parties “agree” on wanting to cut wages and slash jobs.
“All those attention-seeking culture wars imported from overseas, all those trips around the world to talk Australia down, cannot disguise the fact that none of them have anything new or anything positive to offer our country,” he said.
Federal Opposition Leader Angus Taylor explicitly rejected any formal alliance or coalition with Pauline Hanson’s One Nation.
South Australian Senator Alex Antic has previously floated the idea of a merger, and was spotted having drinks with One Nation SA leader Cory Bernardi ahead of the state’s recent March election.
Albanese said in his speech that the Labor party was distinct from others and the contrast had never been more clear given “One Nation’s personality clashes, policy confusion, conspiracy theories, and candidate chaos”.
“Even the very first Labor government was not a monoculture,” Albanese said.
“There were Protestants and Catholics, English, Irish, and Scots. One was an American pretending to be a Canadian, and no one was quite sure if the leader was born in New Zealand or Chile.
“For all of that, those men could never have contemplated a Labor government or Cacus room with a majority of women.”
The historic number of women in the party’s ranks was echoed by incoming President Kate Ellis, former federal member for Adelaide.
Ellis, along with vice presidents Mich-Elle Myers and Rhiannyn Douglas, make up the party’s all-women leadership team, which Ellis said was a first in the party’s history.
“It shows once more that while others figure out if, how, and when women deserve representation within our political structures, we’re just getting on with the job,” Ellis said.
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