‘Never, ever’: Tim Wilson walks back comments on potential One Nation rightwing alliance

The shadow treasurer, Tim Wilson, has said he would “never, ever, ever” support a coalition government with One Nation, walking back previous comments that left the door open to such an arrangement.

Urging the Liberals to “get on with” setting out what they stand for, Wilson joined other senior party figures in rejecting any partnership with the rightwing populist party.

After One Nation’s resounding victory in the Farrer byelection, where it easily won a seat held for 77 years by the Coalition and consigned the Liberals to 12% of the primary vote, focus has sharpened on how the Angus Taylor-led party will hold off threats on both its right and left flanks.

On Sunday, Wilson raised the possibility of forming government with One Nation but on Monday he and other senior Liberal figures rejected joining forces, despite the conservative vote in Australia splintering and One Nation’s consistent outpolling of the Coalition spelling an existential threat to its survival.

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“Of course, we traditionally form a coalition with the National party but it’s up to the Australian people to decide who they want to vote for,” Wilson, a Liberal moderate who won back a teal-held seat at the 2025 election, told the ABC’s Insiders program when asked on Sunday about potentially working with One Nation.

“It all comes down to what Australians put up.”

But when asked about those comments on Monday, Wilson rejected such a rightwing alliance.

“I have never, ever, ever, and never, ever, ever will make such a statement in favour of such an alignment,” he said. “The reality is, the leader of that party [Pauline Hanson] has already declared that she won’t form a coalition with us, and I have no interest in forming a coalition with them.”

The shadow foreign affairs minister, Ted O’Brien, also dismissed the idea, saying: “We have no plans for going into a coalition with One Nation.”

Barnaby Joyce, the former Nationals MP who switched to One Nation, said his party would offer confidence in parliament to the Coalition if such a situation arose but rejected a formal alliance.

“We’ll offer supply and confidence on policy outcomes … and that is not a coalition. We don’t want your ministries, keep your ministries and your salaries,” Joyce told Channel Nine, saying his colleagues wouldn’t want to be “constricted by cabinet solidarity”.