Pauline Hanson’s deleted tweet deepens One Nation’s migration muddle

Pauline Hanson has deleted a social media post containing her immigration targets from just five months ago, plunging One Nation into a deeper state of confusion as its MPs contradict themselves and each other over the party’s signature policy platform.

Hanson posted on X on Sunday to say her party’s policy was to cut net overseas migration to 130,000 people a year after Farrer MP David Farley cast doubt on that target in a Sunday interview by saying it would inevitably be higher.

New England MP Barnaby Joyce then backed Hanson on Monday morning, insisting the 130,000 net migration figure had been long-standing One Nation policy. “We’ve been saying that all along,” Joyce told Sunrise. “It’s 130,000 net overseas migration.”

But One Nation’s public statements, including Hanson’s, contradict that claim and it was only defined as One Nation policy last week, when Joyce said 130,000 was a “net” figure .

Before that, Hanson had said the figure would be significantly lower. The One Nation leader has deleted a post on X she made on March 1 this year containing the lower target, which now conflicts with her most recent position from this weekend.

In the deleted post, Hanson said One Nation was targeting a 130,000 cap on migrant arrivals. She said that would be compared with migrant departures, which had been 230,000 last year, to arrive at the net overseas migration figure. With those figures, NOM would be minus 100,000.

The policy Hanson confirmed on Sunday would mean about 230,000 more people coming to Australia than her post from March.

One Nation’s website still contains the previous policy, saying it would cap the number of visas granted each year to 130,000 – a metric that would lead to either zero or negative NOM depending on how many people left the country each year.

The party has been forced to clarify its position after the latest curveball was thrown over the weekend, when MP David Farley told the ABC that migration numbers under One Nation would be “not too different” to Labor’s.

Farley suggested that was because One Nation had promised to quarantine certain visa classes – the Pacific Australian Labour Mobility scheme and aged care nurses – from its target. He said it meant the overall migrant influx would technically be significantly higher than 130,000 when those people were counted.

The major parties have been grappling with how to neutralise One Nation’s campaign to clamp down on immigration without restricting crucial workforce numbers, harming the economy, or offending migrant communities.

As One Nation ties itself in knots, the Coalition also vowed to protect backpackers from its visa cuts as the parties battle for Australia’s regional electorates.

Opposition home affairs spokesman Jonno Duniam on Monday ruled out slashing working holidaymaker numbers to bring down immigration levels, despite data showing they made up 17.5 per cent of the net migration figure in 2024-25 .

“I don’t envisage we’ll be cutting those at all,” Duniam told Radio National on Monday. “We are not going to be heading down the path of trying to tackle that group because they’re not the big problem.”