Originally published by Hayden Johnson of The Courier Mail.
19.06.2026
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has warned Australia is woefully unprepared for an invasion, saying the nation would last a week at most.
Speaking at News Corp’s Future Townsville event, Ms Hanson launched into a stinging attack on the Albanese government’s defence spending, arguing the nation was not ready for a war in the Asia-Pacific.
“If we’re just going to completely ignore that we may be facing down the barrel of problems in the not-too-distant future with China wanting to invade Taiwan, I think we’re going to be out of it, forget about it,” she said.
“We need to be able to, as a nation, to defend ourselves.
“If a war hit our shores now I think we’d only last three days, maybe a week at the most. We need to be self-sufficient.”
Senator Hanson argued defence spending should be raised to 3.5 per cent of Gross Domestic Product, which would be increased “over a period of time”.
Senator Hanson teamed up with her conservative rival, Nationals leader Matt Canavan, to attack the Albanese government for “cooking the books” on defence spending.
Senator Canavan slammed the Labor government for including military pensions when calculating how much Australia was spending on defence.
“You’re trying to cook the books on this,” Senator Canavan said.
Labor’s Special Envoy for Defence and Veterans’ Affairs, Luke Gosling, argued the change was to better compare Australia’s spending with NATO in Europe.
He said the government had invested in a sovereign missile capability.
Keynote speaker Gina Rinehart presented Pauline Hanson with an “orange bulldozer”, praising her for giving Australians hope.
The Hancock Prospecting Executive Chair asked the crowd at News Corp’s Future Townsville event to make bulldozer noises as she presented Senator Hanson with the toy gift, inspired by Elon Musk’s infamous chainsaw stunt to promote government cuts.
It came moments after she heaped praise on Senator Hanson for putting Australians first.
“Firstly, thank you Pauline,” she said. “You give Aussies across our country hope … never departing values, you have consistently held.”
Ms Rinehart criticised the federal government for embarking on a culture of “big expensive government, high taxes and tape”.
Ms Rinehart used her address to promote the opportunity for Townsville in Elon Musk’s ambitious SpaceX expansion plans.
“He needs land to expand,” she said.
Ms Rinehart said Mr Musk required an allied country for his multiple satellite launches.
