Orange is the new blue: Liberals take on One Nation with ‘desperate’ flyers

The Liberal Party’s anxieties about One Nation have been exposed in unbranded, orange flyers directed at voters flirting with the hard-right populists in the seat of Nepean.

Liberal candidate Anthony Marsh should be a shoo-in for the May 2 byelection, with Labor not contesting the poll. But the party has launched attacks on One Nation – as well as the independent candidate – in the first test of the Victorian Liberal Party’s exposure on the right since the minor party’s rampage through South Australia and consecutive polls.

“Thinking of voting ONE NATION?” a leaflet distributed this week says, in orange font. “At this byelection, a vote for One Nation helps keep Labor in power in November.”

The campaign material does not carry the usual blue Liberal Party branding, but was authorised by state director Alyson Hannam.

“Our message remains consistent, to get the real change Victorians need both in Nepean and across the state you need an experienced team with a plan,” Hannam said in a statement to this masthead.

On Wednesday, a second leaflet was distributed in pink, the campaign colour for independent Tracee Hutchison. “JACINTA ALLAN’S SECRET NEPEAN CANDIDATE?” that material said.

When asked about the orange leaflets, One Nation state president Warren Pickering paraphrased Napoleon: “The phrase, ‘Never interrupt your opponent while they’re making mistakes’ comes to mind here.”

Pickering said Victorians deserved better than a “tit-for-tat smear campaign” and that the major parties were panicking “because they know we’re coming for their jobs”.

“Suffice to say, both major parties need to get their own houses in order before they throw stones. We’ve seen both terrible governance and no real opposition in this state for over a decade.”

One Nation candidate Darren Hercus said he was “amused” by the leaflet, which he described as a dirty tactic and “act of desperation”.

He claimed the party had almost 400 members across the peninsula, which overlaps multiple state seats.

The pink leaflet against Hutchison referenced a 2019 story in The Age in which sources claimed Hutchison, a former ABC journalist, was considering running for Labor.

The leaflet denigrated her for referring to Australia Day as Survival Day, and dug up a 2007 opinion piece in which she said the Australian flag had become a symbol for white supremacists.

In a statement to The Age, Hutchison said the “lazy and dishonest attacks” proved why she needed to run. Hutchison said she had no affiliation with Labor beyond 2019 discussions focused on the need to redevelop Rosebud Hospital, and had owned her home in Rosebud for 25 years.

“If the best the Liberal Party can do is dredge up a 2007 opinion piece calling for unity and pride in our flag, question my allyship with First Nations people, and force me to disclose my recent divorce and property settlement, it only underlines their desperation.”

Labor is sitting the byelection out, which would traditionally give the Liberal Party a clear run. But some members privately fear they are vulnerable to One Nation in Nepean.

“With out-of-control crime and debt, we need people with the experience to provide real solutions,” the orange leaflet says. “Have One Nation ever: Built a hospital? Built a road? Led a state? Delivered a budget? Made a government program work?

“Taking a risk will see us ending up with more of this,” it says, alongside newspaper clippings about state debt and the CFMEU saga.

The Liberal Party has begun debating internally how best to respond to the rise of One Nation. The leaflet is a possible preview of its plans to stem the bleeding to the right this November, in the hope of regaining power.

In an interview with The Age on Monday, Liberal Party state president Phil Davis said the party would never win in Victoria by imitating One Nation.

“People in the party who are trying to drag us to be One Nation-lite fundamentally do not understand Victorian politics,” Davis said.

“Every election in Victoria where we have been successful, we have essentially won it from the centre. We don’t win from the fringe. We cannot win from the fringe.”

His public intervention enraged parts of the Liberal Party. On Tuesday, Sky News commentator Peta Credlin, the former chief of staff to Tony Abbott, said it was “nonsense” the party ever won as moderates. “Sorry, when was that?” she said on her program.

Premier Jacinta Allan has attempted to paint Opposition Leader Jess Wilson, and the broader Coalition, as party to One Nation’s divisive politics.

Wilson has repeatedly said the only way to change government is to vote for the Liberal and National parties.

Some state-based polls have placed support for One Nation in the high 20s, though the latest Resolve Political Monitor for The Age in January and February estimated the minor party was favoured by 11 per cent of voters. Support for the Coalition had dropped to 30 per cent, while Labor has stagnated on 28 per cent.

Nepean voters will be forced to the polls twice in seven months after former deputy Liberal leader Sam Groth resigned suddenly.

The seat has been with the Liberal Party since it was established in 2002, except for at the 2018 “Danslide” election. Groth regained the seat with 48.1 per cent of primary votes in 2022, leaving Marsh with a 6.4 per cent margin two-party preferred.

Marsh declined to comment.

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