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Pauline Hanson names Tony Abbott as her pick as the next Liberal leader after slamming Angus Taylor as 'smarmy'

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Bodkin, P. (2026, October 11). Pauline Hanson names Tony Abbott as her pick as the next Liberal leader after slamming Angus Taylor as 'smarmy'. Daily Mail. https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-16200023/Pauline-Hanson-tony-abbott-liberals-leadership.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490

Dated when The Aporia collected the article, usually within hours of publication. Check the original for its exact date and byline.

Daily Mail · collected 2026-10-11 · by Peter Bodkin

Quick Summary

Pauline Hanson, leader of One Nation, criticized the Liberal Party's current leader Angus Taylor at a conservative conference in Brisbane, calling him a "smarmy management consultant." She also dismissed Tim Wilson as unsuitable for leadership. However, Hanson endorsed former prime minister and current party president Tony Abbott to lead the Liberals, suggesting they collaborate against Labor due to the difficulty of governing alone. The article highlights the tension between One Nation and the Liberal Party as both vie for support among right-wing voters.
Written by AI on 2026-10-11, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

At the Conservative Political Action Conference in Brisbane, Pauline Hanson, leader of One Nation, attacked Opposition Leader Angus Taylor for his past support of climate policies and creation of the eSafety Commissioner. Despite her criticism, Hanson offered to set aside personal grievances with the Liberal Party to form a government after the next election if it means removing the Labor Party led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Meanwhile, Taylor struggled to match Hanson’s charisma, receiving significantly less applause than she did when he addressed the conference on Saturday. Hanson's speech focused on past mistakes of the Coalition and promised to establish a royal commission into net zero targets.

Written for “Pauline Hanson Attacks Rivals” on 2026-11-04, grounded in this article and the 6 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 Pauline Hanson Attacks Rivals
Politics · 7 article(s) covering the same event. Compare every outlet's account →

Compared with similar articles

This article reads leans right and hedges 4% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
ABC News (AU)
⚖️ Leans right Hedges 1 of 53 claims Outlet record 67/100
“The articles describe different aspects of the political situation, with Article A focusing on Angus Taylor's immigration policy announcement and Article B reporting on Pauline Hanson's comments about Taylor at a conference.”
The Sydney Morning Herald
⚖️ Leans strongly right further right than this Hedges 1 of 35 claims Outlet record 61/100
ABC News (AU)
⚖️ Leans right Hedges 3 of 29 claims Outlet record 67/100
“The articles describe different parts of the same conference, but each focuses on distinct occurrences: one highlights the contrasting receptions for Angus Taylor and Pauline Hanson, while the other reports on Pauline Hanson's endorsement of Tony Abbott during the event.”
The Sydney Morning Herald
⚖️ Leans strongly right further right than this Hedges 2 of 45 claims Outlet record 61/100
“The articles describe different speeches and events in separate countries, one by Kemi Badenoch in the UK and another by Pauline Hanson in Australia.”
Daily Mail
⚖️ Leans right Hedges 2 of 30 claims Outlet record 69/100
“While both articles discuss Pauline Hanson's statements at CPAC Australia, they appear to cover different aspects of her speech and interactions.”
ABC News (AU)
⚖️ Leans right Hedges 0 of 2 claims Outlet record 67/100
“While both articles discuss Pauline Hanson addressing a conservative conference, they are written on different dates and focus on distinct aspects of her involvement.”
The Sydney Morning Herald
⚖️ Leans right Hedges 1 of 15 claims Outlet record 61/100
“The articles discuss different parts of the CPAC conference, with Article A focusing on Taylor's appearance and feeling overshadowed by Hanson, while Article B focuses on Hanson naming Abbott as her pick for Liberal leader after criticizing Taylor.”
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
23
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
4%
1 of 23 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
Leans right
of the writing, not the subject · beta estimate
Publisher signals
69/100
Daily Mail's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
7
Politics
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-10-11 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

Daily Mail · 9143 article(s) · 22 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 22 correction(s)

Who wrote this

Peter Bodkin
1 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 Senator Hanson said she did not 'want to be around the table' with the Liberals, but they should still work together to get rid of Labor as it would be extremely hard for either One Nation or the Coalition to govern alone.
The only article under this byline in the corpus.

Topics

Coalition Labor Liberal Liberals One Nation

Subjects

Hanson PERSON · 5× Labor ORG · 5× Liberals NORP · 5× One Nation ORG · 5× Coalition ORG · 4× Liberal NORP · 3× Taylor PERSON · 3× Angus Taylor PERSON · 2× CPAC ORG · 2× Pauline Hanson PERSON · 2×

Narrative

Angus Taylor became the first sitting opposition leader to address the Australian Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Brisbane on Saturday as the coalition and One Nation vied for the fractured right-wing vote. But Senator Hanson emerged the crowd favourite as she made jibes about her conservative rivals while also offering to 'put personal history aside' and team up with the Coalition to remove Labor from government.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-10-11
🔮 Senator Hanson said she did not 'want to be around the table' with the Liberals, but they should still work together to get rid of Labor as it would be extremely hard for either One Nation or the Coalition to govern alone.

Claims (23 extracted, 1 hedged)

One Nation's Pauline Hanson has revealed her pick to head right-wing counterparts the Liberals after dismissing its current leader as a 'smarmy management consultant'. asserted
Hanson → reveal → consultant
Angus Taylor became the first sitting opposition leader to address the Australian Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Brisbane on Saturday as the coalition and One Nation vied for the fractured right-wing vote. But Senator Hanson emerged the crowd favourite as she made jibes about her conservative rivals while also offering to 'put personal history aside' and team up with the Coalition to remove Labor from government. asserted
she → become → government
Opposition frontbenchers headlined on Sunday as their leaders swapped the conference stage for the morning media rounds. asserted
leaders → headline → rounds
Senator Hanson said she did not 'want to be around the table' with the Liberals, but they should still work together to get rid of Labor as it would be extremely hard for either One Nation or the Coalition to govern alone. asserted
Nation → say → Labor
A day after suggesting Taylor - a former partner at global consulting firm McKinsey & Company - was a 'smarmy management consultant', she also dismissed shadow treasurer and Liberal leadership hopeful Tim Wilson as 'full of himself' and 'woke'. asserted
she → suggest → himself
'He put us last in the last election, called us a racist party,' she told News24. asserted
she → put → News24
'If they're thinking about Tim Wilson, I think you better think again because I've got no time for that man.' asserted
I → think → man
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has revealed her pick to head the Liberal Party It comes after Hanson slammed current Coalition leader Angus Taylor as a 'smarmy management consultant' asserted
Hanson → reveal → consultant
Senator Hanson said she got on 'reasonably well' with former Liberal treasurer Josh Frydenberg, who is reportedly mulling a return to politics after losing his seat at the 2022 election. uncertain
who → say → election
But she said former prime minister and current party president Tony Abbott was the person with the best chance of leading the Liberals. asserted
Abbott → say → Liberals
The Coalition has consistently trailed One Nation in the polls since the start of the year, while some surveys have put the anti-immigration party ahead of Labor on primary support. asserted
surveys → trail → support
Taylor said he would welcome Mr Frydenberg 'playing whatever role he's able to play' as he needed 'every good Liberal with shoulder to the wheel' in the lead-up to the next election. asserted
he → say → election
But he poured cold water on an idea floated by the former treasurer to raise the GST while lowering income taxes. asserted
he → pour → taxes
'We will not be raising the GST in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis ... asserted
We → raise → crisis
we'll put Australia and Australians first, but we won't be raising taxes,' he told ABC's Insiders program on Sunday. asserted
he → put → Sunday
In an extract from his soon-to-be-published memoir, Frydenberg called on the coalition to ignore calls to appeal to the extremes and instead target the electoral centre. asserted
Frydenberg → publish → centre
But during his speech to the conservative conference, Taylor described the coalition under his leadership alongside the Nationals' Matt Canavan as 'unashamedly on the right'. asserted
Taylor → describe → right
Hanson named former prime minister and current Liberals president Tony Abbott (pictured) as the person with the best chance of leading the party Opposition energy spokesman Dan Tehan took the stage on Sunday, telling the audience the coalition would axe Labor's policies to achieve net-zero emissions. asserted
coalition → name → emissions
Earlier, Mr Tehan told AAP he was using 'every forum available' to inform Australians of the coalition's energy agenda. asserted
he → tell → agenda
His Labor counterpart, Chris Bowen, said Liberals were competing with One Nation on 'crazy'. asserted
Liberals → say → crazy
'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,' the energy and climate change minister said. asserted
minister → go → bottom
Mainstream journalists - given 'fake news' media passes - were not allowed to put questions to leaders at the conference, while some were refused entry outright. asserted
some → give → entry
CPAC was imported to Australia from the US in 2019. asserted
CPAC → import → 2019
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