Australia's right gathers at CPAC in Brisbane but still lacks a plan to unseat Albanese's Labor
The CPAC conservative conference in Brisbane centred on how preference votes should flow between the Coalition and One Nation. Australia's right still has not agreed how to cooperate to remove Labor at the next election.
The annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) of Australian conservative politicians and activists took place in Brisbane, with one dominant theme: preferences, meaning how votes are passed between parties. The aim was to work out how the right could cooperate to remove Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's Labor government at the next election. It matters because the conservative side is divided and faces a third consecutive election defeat.
A split right
Labor holds 94 seats. Angus Taylor's weakened Coalition is being challenged by Pauline Hanson's surging One Nation. In messages to attendees, CPAC warned that supporting One Nation but refusing to preference the Coalition, or the reverse, risks reinstalling Labor.
Hanson signed a pledge to work together and challenged Taylor and Nationals leader Matt Canavan to do likewise. Hours earlier, however, she had told the conference not to trust the Coalition and appeared to describe the Liberal leader as unfit to replace Albanese. She said the ball was in Taylor's court on how the two parties would coexist.
Taylor dodged questions about cooperating with One Nation and was booed by the audience. He apologised for net zero, pandemic spending and immigration increases under past Coalition governments. Many in the audience appeared to have come mainly to see Hanson.
Atmosphere at the event
The conference featured a Donald Trump impersonator, opera singers performing the national anthem and a lecture by Barnaby Joyce on the value of money. Journalists were asked to wear accreditation lanyards reading "FAKE NEWS".
Past conferences
The mood at CPAC has previously signalled where the right was heading. In 2022 it urged opposition to the Indigenous voice referendum, and a month later the Nationals opposed it. In 2025 speakers criticised Sussan Ley's leadership, and the Liberals later dropped net zero and replaced her. The next election is due by May 2028.
