ss AUSTRALIA’S POLITICAL LANDSCAPE ERUPTS! In this fictional scenario, a shocking statement from Senator Pauline Hanson has frozen the nation in its tracks. She accuses Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of “trading national safety for power” after the government allegedly ignored more than 2,700 signatures on a petition demanding a review of the entry of a highly controversial international figure

In a blistering escalation that has set Australian politics ablaze, One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has launched an extraordinary personal attack on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, accusing him of being a “power-hungry do-nothing” who is “happy to sell out Australia’s values for a handshake and a photo opportunity with Do.n.al.d T.r.u.m.p”.

Speaking outside Parliament House this morning, Senator Hanson pointed to the now-closed e-petition EN7254 – titled “Ban T.r.u.m.p from Australia” – which gathered 2,723 signatures calling for the former (and potentially future) U.S.

President, his immediate family, and key administration figures to be permanently barred from entering the country on character grounds.

“Over 2,700 Australians took the time to say they do not want a man who has incited racial violence, promoted discrimination, and threatened democracy welcomed here with open arms,” Hanson thundered. “Yet what do we get from Anthony Albanese? Silence. Crickets. Nothing.

If a Prime Minister cannot protect his own people and will do anything for money and a pat on the back from Washington, what sort of country are we left with?”

The petition, lodged in October 2025, cited T.r.u.m.p.’s role in the January 6 Capitol riot, his travel bans on Muslim-majority countries, and repeated allegations of inflammatory rhetoric as justification for invoking Section 501 of the Migration Act – the same “character test” used to deny entry to far-right commentator Candace Owens in 2024.

Hanson’s broadside has detonated across social media, racking up more than 420,000 mentions in under six hours under hashtags #AlboSellOut, #BanTrumpAustralia, and #HansonVsAlbo. The reaction has been ferocious and deeply polarised.

Labor frontbencher Bill Shorten dismissed the attack as “classic Hanson hysteria”, telling ABC Radio National: “Pauline has been running the same scare campaign for thirty years. Australia is a sovereign nation with a strong alliance with the United States.

We don’t take foreign policy advice from online petitions with fewer signatures than a suburban netball club.”

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, still reeling from his party’s catastrophic 2025 election defeat, seized the moment to land his own blow, declaring: “Albanese’s weakness on the world stage is embarrassing. He lectures Australians about misinformation while flying to Washington to glad-hand a man half the country finds repellent.

No wonder trust in this government is collapsing.”

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young took a third path, criticising both leaders: “Neither side has the courage to call out Trump’s dangerous legacy. Labor wants the AUKUS deal, the Coalition wants the culture war clicks. Meanwhile, the petition sits unanswered because both major parties are terrified of upsetting Washington.”

The petition itself – while modest in numbers compared to blockbuster e-petitions that have exceeded 500,000 signatures – has become a lightning rod in a nation still processing Trump’s possible return to the White House in January 2025.

Its closure without a formal government response has fuelled accusations of deliberate stonewalling.

Immigration Minister Andrew Giles issued a carefully worded statement late yesterday: “All petitions tabled in the House are considered through the usual processes. Visa decisions for any individual are made on a case-by-case basis and remain confidential.”

Legal experts say an actual ban on a sitting or former U.S. President would be unprecedented and diplomatically explosive.

Professor Kim Rubenstein, constitutional law expert at the University of Canberra, told The Guardian: “Section 501 gives the Minister extraordinary power, but using it against the leader of our closest ally would shatter the bilateral relationship overnight. It’s political suicide.”

Yet for Hanson and her supporters, the issue is symbolic rather than practical. “This isn’t about whether Trump will ever holiday on the Gold Coast,” she told reporters. “It’s about whether Australia still has a backbone.

Albanese has shown he’ll trade our principles for a seat at the adults’ table in Washington.”

The timing could hardly be worse for the Prime Minister. Fresh from his landslide re-election victory in May, Albanese’s personal approval has begun to slide amid cost-of-living pressures and lingering anger over the government’s continued support for AUKUS and critical minerals deals with the United States.

Photos of Albanese grinning alongside Trump at a Mar-a-Lago dinner in October have been weaponised relentlessly online.

One Nation’s official X account posted a side-by-side image of the two leaders shaking hands with the caption: “2,723 Australians said NO. Albanese said ‘How high?’ when Trump told him to jump.”

By early afternoon, the phrase “power-hungry do-nothing” was trending nationwide, with memes flooding TikTok and Instagram Reels.

Labor staffers scrambled to push back with their own graphics highlighting Hanson’s long history of controversial statements, while Dutton’s office quietly circulated talking points reminding voters that the Coalition had also courted Trump during his first term.

As of 5 p.m., the Department of Home Affairs had received more than 1,800 new complaints referencing the petition – a record daily spike.

Whether Hanson’s outburst marks the opening salvo of a sustained summer campaign against the government, or simply another flash-in-the-pan controversy, one thing is clear: in an Australia still deeply divided over Trump, identity, and sovereignty, the petition that began with 2,723 signatures has become the match that lit a political firestorm.

With Parliament rising for the year in less than 48 hours and the Prime Minister’s office yet to respond directly, the question now is simple: Will Anthony Albanese finally break his silence, or will the accusation that he is a “power-hungry do-nothing” be the phrase that defines the summer of 2025–26?

The nation is watching. And it is furious.