Australia’s political landscape has erupted in fresh criticism of One Nation after internal contradictions and public confusion gutted the right-wing populist party’s controversial new housing policy, which targets foreign-owned property across the country. Two key figures from both the ruling Labor Party and opposition Liberal-National Coalition have united in condemnation, calling the proposal unworkable and highlighting the deep disarray within One Nations’s policy drafting process.
Amanda Rishworth, Australia’s Employment Minister and senior Labor Party MP, laid out the governing party’s criticism in an interview with Sky News on Sunday. She argued that One Nation leader Pauline Hanson’s flagship proposal — which would require foreign owners of Australian residential property to sell their holdings within a fixed period, or face government repossession — is fundamentally unworkable, and even One Nation’s own parliamentary representatives cannot answer basic questions about how the policy would operate.
The policy’s rollout last week was plagued by immediate confusion. Senior crossbencher Barnaby Joyce initially told reporters the mandate would extend to permanent residents of Australia holding property, only to reverse his position just hours later, clarifying that permanent residents would be exempt from the forced sale rule. Rishworth pointed to this back-and-forth as proof that One Nation lacks the discipline to craft viable policy, even on a high-priority issue like housing affordability.
“If One Nation wants to be taken seriously as a political force, they’ve got to put in the work to develop coherent, actionable policy,” Rishworth said. “They correctly identify that housing affordability is a major problem for Australian people, but their proposed solution is total chaos. They keep pulling half-baked ideas together on the fly that simply will never work. That’s the core issue with One Nation: I understand why voters disillusioned with the major parties are looking for alternatives, but they don’t actually have real, workable solutions to the problems they highlight.”
Rishworth acknowledged widespread voter discontent with the center-right Liberal Party that has driven disaffected supporters to One Nation, noting “pretty clear signs” of a shift, but declined to weigh in on the internal rivalry between the two parties. “On most key issues, the two are really just two sides of the same coin,” she added. She also called out One Nation for failing to release costing analysis for the housing policy and other signature proposals, saying the party has offered only excuses for the omission.
For the opposition, Shadow Treasurer Tim Wilson also labeled One Nation’s proposal shocking during his own Sky News appearance. Wilson argued that forcing law-abiding property owners — many of whom pay taxes and contribute to local Australian economies — to sell their homes and leave the country is a disturbing overreach that exposes One Nation’s true governing priorities.
“It’s quite shocking that One Nation’s core agenda here is simply to evict people from their homes and expel them from the country,” Wilson said. “These are people acting in full compliance with Australian law, they’re local property owners contributing to our communities. This says something really distressing about what their objectives would be if they held government power. It’s a remarkably aggressive approach to people who are already here paying their taxes.”
Wilson, however, defended the Coalition’s own controversial migration policy that would bar permanent residents from accessing the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and other federal welfare programs, even though many permanent residents pay federal income and other taxes. He drew a clear distinction between the Coalition’s policy and One Nation’s proposal, noting that the Coalition’s welfare changes would be grandfathered for existing residents and would not include forced home sales or expulsion.
“Our focus is on ensuring that people who come to Australia commit to the country and contribute to it,” Wilson explained. “We don’t believe it’s in the best interest of anyone — existing Australians or new migrants — for people to actively seek out welfare immediately upon arrival. This is a very different approach from what One Nation is proposing.”
Confusion around One Nation’s policy persisted into the weekend, when One Nation Senator Sean Bell failed to clarify key outstanding details during a Sydney radio interview on 2GB. When pressed on whether the government would actually repossess properties if owners failed to sell within Hanson’s proposed two-year window, Bell evaded the question, only stating that it is “perfectly reasonable” to prioritize home ownership for Australian citizens. Interview host Mark Levy cut the conversation short after Bell failed to provide clear answers, saying the party needed to get its own story straight first.