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One Nation leader Pauline Hanson’s European holiday has exposed cracks in her relationship with star recruit Barnaby Joyce – as her chief adviser claimed she was pushed into meeting a far-right UK activist by the Seven Network.
Following a week of sliding poll numbers and this masthead’s reporting of antisemitic and conspiratorial views of a One Nation senator, the populist party has moved to distance itself from a decision to meet anti-Islam activist and criminal Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.
The get-together with the Briton led to questions about Hanson’s judgment as she spent time in Sicily at a luxury hotel with billionaire Gina Rinehart during a gap between two conservative forums in London.
The One Nation leader was photographed spending time poolside with her benefactor at the resort by one of the other guests, even as Hanson was posting on social media about the cost pressures faced by Australian farmers and highlighting her time in some of England’s more struggling towns.
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor suggested on Thursday that Hanson was “living it up” in Europe instead of dealing with revelations about Senator Malcolm Roberts’ support for Vladimir Putin and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
“The question here for Pauline Hanson is: what is she going to do about it? She’s over in Italy right now,” Taylor said.
Hanson’s move to sit down with the fringe provocateur, whose appearance with Karl Stefanovic led to the broadcaster leaving Nine, has exposed tension in One Nation’s ranks after months of harmony as the party surged in the polls.
Joyce, speculated to have some sort of agreement to one day lead the party, has told associates that Hanson’s decision to appear with Robinson was ill-advised and showed a misunderstanding about voters’ attitudes, according to sources in touch with the former National.
One Nation and Joyce said the claim was wrong and that the pair have a trusting relationship.
The sources said that other figures connected to One Nation have also expressed unease that Robinson’s presence next to Hanson would hurt One Nation’s reputation as the party tries to appeal to swinging voters.
One source familiar with the internal dynamics in One Nation said: “It’s falling apart rapidly. Barnaby and Pauline are in constant disagreement. No one likes Malcolm [Roberts] and everyone is keeping their eyes on [James] Ashby. Throw Lee’s [Hanson, Pauline’s daughter] ascension to the throne into the mix and it’s not a happy place.”
Hanson has been on what she has described as a “fact-finding mission” in Britain which has included a yet-to-be-released podcast with Robinson. She has been accompanied by a crew from Seven’s Sunday night program, Spotlight, which has been working with Hanson for months.
One Nation’s top staffer, James Ashby, broke the party’s silence, telling this masthead from London that Hanson was not initially planning to meet Robinson. The Queenslander was planning to meet Nigel Farage but the Reform UK leader quit and sparked a byelection a day before the scheduled meeting with Hanson.
“After Nigel pulled out because of the byelection he caused, Seven went hunting for a filler,” Ashby said.
“They paid for the hotel room for Tommy to film his podcast with PH. They paid for the people movers to visit Luton. They paid for four British SAS security to accompany them and the boss. They were big on making this meeting occur.”
Senior sources at Seven, who were not willing to speak on the record, pushed back and denied Ashby’s version of events. They claimed that Spotlight crew were invited by One Nation to see Robinson interview the party’s boss. Once the agreement was in place, Seven said they booked a hotel room to fit the podcast set-up, alongside its own camera crew.
Communication between Seven and One Nation broke down just days before the episode was set to air. A Seven source claimed Ashby was “panicking because he can’t control the story”. Security was needed to protect Seven staff walking alongside a controversial figure such as Robinson, the Seven source said.
Ashby believes that the Spotlight crew acted in a duplicitous manner by allegedly pushing for the Robinson meeting then pushing Hanson to defend him.
“I’m not going to apologise for meeting with Tommy Robinson,” Hanson said in the promo.
A spokeswoman for Seven admitted the network “paid for some standard production costs including a hotel room used as a set for recording interviews and security to protect the Seven staff while recording on UK streets”.
“The team has been granted rare access to Senator Hanson abroad, resulting in a Spotlight episode that includes fly-on-the-wall moments as well as tough questions from [reporter] Liam Bartlett. It will give Australians the chance to hear Hanson’s views as they have been shaped by her UK visit, and an understanding of how her new outlook could shape Australia’s future.”
Seven may face questions about its decision to facilitate the Hanson interview with the UK extremist, who has been convicted for a string of crimes including attacking an off-duty policeman. He has close links to Russia.
Hanson embraced Robinson in a video she posted a week ago from the hotel room in which the podcast was filmed. “There’s the famous man,” she said, before the pair talked about how they had backed each other at low points in their careers. Hanson’s promotion of the meeting suggests One Nation was comfortable with the exposure to Robinson, and she also backed Robinson after the Stefanovic affair.
Hanson and Robinson also travelled through the streets of Luton, a town to the north of London, with the Spotlight crew to expose what Hanson and Robinson say is the scourge of political Islam. About a third of Luton’s population is Muslim, according to a 2021 Census.
Ashby acknowledged that “Tommy isn’t a perfect person” and that he had “made plenty of mistakes”.
“But there’s one thing I’ve witnessed with my own eyes – I never want Australia to end up like Luton or Tower Hamlets [a suburb in London],” Ashby said. “There’s a genuine concern that Britain will never turn back. We also learnt off Tommy that the prison system is overrun with Muslim gangs who are converting prisoners inside the prison system.
“He warned that Australia should carefully monitor this scenario back home. The guy isn’t perfect, but he had a great deal of intel I won’t be dismissing.”
In promos for the Sunday night program, Bartlett grills Hanson over the meeting with Robinson and confronts Robinson, who threatens at one point to “beat him up”.
Joyce said on Thursday: “I don’t support so much of what Tommy Robinson does, but I think it’s incredibly important that we understand the social dynamic and how that came about.”
One Nation’s primary vote dropped from 29 to 26 per cent in this masthead’s Resolve survey over the past month, mirroring similar movements in the Redbridge and YouGov polls. Hanson took a 10-point hit in her personal numbers after a messy month following her appearance at the National Press Club, but she remains ahead of the Coalition in most polls.
Robinson first gained prominence in the 2000s as a member of the British National Party, which has been characterised as a fascist outfit by political scientists. He co-founded the English Defence League and organised anti-Islam street protests across the UK. He has achieved more mainstream appeal lately as public anxiety about migration and small boat arrivals has grown in the UK.
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Paul Sakkal is Chief Political Correspondent. He previously covered Victorian politics and won a Walkley award and the 2025 Press Gallery Journalist of the Year. Contact him securely on Signal @paulsakkal.14.Connect via X or email.
Calum Jaspan is a media writer for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, based in Melbourne. Reach him securely on Signal @calumjaspan.10Connect via X or email.From our partners
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