Hanson Bars ABC and Guardian From One Nation Campaign Launch

Pauline Hanson has sparked fresh controversy after banning several major Australian media organisations — including the ABC, The Age and The Guardian — from the official launch of One Nation's Victorian state election campaign, prompting accusations that she is borrowing tactics from the Donald Trump political playbook.

Federal Employment Minister Amanda Rishworth was blunt in her assessment, arguing that no politician has the luxury of cherry-picking their questioners. "As a politician you have to turn up and answer questions," Rishworth said. "Sometimes the questions are uncomfortable — that is the nature of the job. She has been caught out a number of times on policy positions, including her stance on paid parental leave, but accountability is non-negotiable."

Rishworth noted the irony in Hanson's oft-repeated claim that she has nothing to hide. "If that is genuinely the case, I am not sure why she would want to exclude the ABC, The Age and The Guardian," she said.

New South Wales Opposition Leader Kelly Sloan agreed the approach was unlikely to serve Hanson well over time. "This idea of not allowing media to turn up eventually stops floating," Sloan said. "Staying connected to the people you are supposed to represent matters far more than controlling who is in the room."

The media ban coincided with separate reporting that One Nation has hosted lavish fundraising dinners at the Brisbane River mansion of mining billionaire Gina Rinehart. Both Rishworth and Sloan said the critical issue was not the dinners themselves but whether donations were properly declared to the Australian Electoral Commission. "Political parties do fundraise — the important thing is full transparency and compliance with AEC rules," Rishworth said. "That obligation applies to every party without exception."

The political panel also weighed in on a separate but equally pressing issue: a reported $230 billion fall in national property values, which industry groups are describing as a once-in-a-generation housing slump. Developers have warned of an acute supply shortage, while some borrowers are beginning to confront the prospect of negative equity.

Rishworth sought to contextualise the figures, pointing to a comparable dip in 2022 when interest rates rose sharply, and citing Reserve Bank modelling suggesting fewer than one per cent of borrowers face genuine negative equity exposure. "Over the long term, Treasury is very clear that sustainable price growth will return," she said.

Sloan rejected that framing, arguing the decline reflected deliberate — and damaging — policy choices at both federal and state level. "New South Wales went from the top-performing state in the country to the bottom in three years under Labor," she said. "Record migration has outpaced housing construction, new taxes are being stacked onto the cost of every dwelling, and construction companies are closing. This is causing intergenerational harm — our children are going to bear the consequences."

Sloan was careful to distinguish between a cooling market and a supply collapse. "Nobody is asking for prices to surge back up — but you cannot have supply disappearing at the same time. That combination is the real crisis."

The discussion reflected a broader tension in Australian politics between transparency, party fundraising practices and the mounting pressure on housing affordability — issues that are expected to feature prominently as the Victorian election campaign takes shape.