The Sydney Morning Herald
· collected 2026-10-05 · by Paul Sakkal, Kieran Rooney
Mark Nicholson, a prominent figure in the One Nation party, called for former Victorian premiers Daniel Andrews and Jacinta Allan to be jailed during the party’s state election launch. This statement reflects a point of tension between One Nation leader Pauline Hanson and defector Barnaby Joyce, who distanced himself from Nicholson's remarks but agreed that the Andrews administration was disastrous. Federal Liberals criticized these performative threats as inappropriate for a liberal democracy, while Victorian Premier Ben Carroll condemned the comments as "appalling."
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-05,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Story summary
On October 14th, Pauline Hanson led the launch of One Nation's 2026 Victorian State Campaign at Melbourne's Crown Conference Centre, attracting over 750 supporters. A heavy police presence was deployed due to activist protests outside. Warren Pickering, Victoria’s leader for One Nation, announced that 93 candidates would contest every seat in the November 28 election, pledging to boost law enforcement powers and scrap major projects like the Suburban Rail Loop. Prominent candidate Mark Nicholson controversially declared he wanted former premiers Daniel Andrews and Jacinta Allan "in prison by Christmas," a comment that drew criticism from other politicians but was met with applause at the event.
Written for “One Nation Campaign Launch Victoria” on 2026-10-05,
grounded in this article and the 4 other(s) covering the same event.
Why this leaning score
The model judged this article politically coded and scored it -0.25, but 1 quote(s) could not be found in the article and the other 1 are attributed speech rather than the article's own narration, so the score is not published.
Written under an earlier scoring contract, which gave a paragraph
rather than checkable quotes. Re-analysing this article replaces it.
Leaning score withheld for article 56933: no verified evidence · logged 2026-10-05
Federal Liberals say One Nation’s call to jail former Victorian premiers Daniel Andrews and Jacinta Allan exposes the risk of handing power to Pauline Hanson as the prison threat reveals another point of difference between Coalition defector Barnaby Joyce and his new party.
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threat → say → Joyce
Prominent One Nation figure Mark Nicholson, who created the cartoons in which Liberal MP Andrew Hastie was labelled a traitor, made the remarks at the party’s state election launch.
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Hastie → create → launch
Mimicking Donald Trump’s line on locking up Hillary Clinton, Nicholson declared “heads are going to roll”.
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heads → mimic → Clinton
“Dan Andrews, Jacinta Allan – they’re going to be in prison by Christmas,” he said at Crown on Saturday.
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he → go → Saturday
And this is how, together, we can take Victoria back.”
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we → take → Victoria
Victorian senator James Paterson, an ally of Opposition Leader Angus Taylor, said Victorians deserved justice for “what has happened over the last 12 years” under Labor.
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what → say → Labor
“But the best way to deliver that is with Jess Wilson’s plan for a real royal commission to get to the bottom of what Andrews and Allan did, lawfully.
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Andrews → deliver → what
Performative promises to lock up your political opponents have no place in a liberal democracy,” he said.
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he → lock → democracy
Nobody from One Nation, which is ahead of the Coalition in the state polls, has sought to clarify Nicholson’s statement or explain if it constitutes an actual pledge to push for prosecutions against Andrews and Allan.
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it → seek → Andrews
New England MP Barnaby Joyce tried to distance himself from Nicholson.
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Joyce → try → Nicholson
“It wasn’t Pauline that said that – it was one of the candidates,” Joyce told the Seven Network before calling the Andrews and Allan administrations disastrous for Victoria.
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Joyce → say → Victoria
Instead of trying to downplay and ignore Nicholson’s statement, One Nation strategists running Hanson’s social media pages have been blasting out the jail time call to their large following.
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strategists → try → following
“We’re not pulling our punches in Victoria,” it said in one post which included a screenshot of an article titled “In prison by Christmas”.
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which → pull → Christmas
Joyce previously expressed private worry about the idea of net negative migration, which Hanson ultimately adopted as policy.
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Hanson → express → policy
In another display of tension, Joyce was critical of Hanson’s decision to meet with far-right provocateur and criminal Tommy Robinson.
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Joyce → meet → Robinson
Victorian Premier Ben Carroll told ABC Radio that Nicholson’s comments were “appalling”, even as he opens up a royal commission into corruption that could call Andrews and Allan as witnesses.
uncertain
that → tell → witnesses
“We have a rule of law here,” Carroll said.
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Carroll → have → law
“That just showed why [Victorian Opposition Leader] Jess Wilson needs to rule out once and for all doing a coalition with them.”
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Wilson → show → them
“At least federal Liberals will call out One Nation.”
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Liberals → call → Nation
At the same event on Saturday, leader Pauline Hanson invoked the famous bushranger Ned Kelly even as she pledged a crackdown on crime.
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she → invoke → crime
Conservative Queensland MP Garth Hamilton said Nicholson’s remarks were a sign of how Hanson would govern.
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Hanson → say → ?
“This gives a view of what sort of government they would form,” he said.
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he → give → government
“A vindictive one that crosses the line between executive and judiciary.”
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that → cross → executive
One Nation insisted it would pay commercial rent after it emerged that the party’s billionaire patron, mining magnate Gina Rinehart, purchased an $8 million office building in Brisbane that will serve as the party’s new headquarters.
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that → insist → headquarters
Hanson has also been campaigning to support former Victoria Cross winner Ben Roberts-Smith as legal figures and her political opponents have asked her to respect the ongoing criminal case.
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figures → campaign → case
A 63-page policy document entitled The Real Deal outlines One Nation’s plan to make Victoria the toughest state on crime, repeal a raft of taxes, cancel the Suburban Rail Loop, rip up the Treaty with First Nations Victorians and roll back renewable energy projects while lifting the state’s ban on nuclear power.
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Victoria → entitle → power
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Subscribers → sign → newsletter
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