Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce says Western Australian Liberal Premier Colin Barnett has increased his risk of losing next month's state election after deciding to preference One Nation ahead of the Nationals.
Signalling a split in the federal Coalition over the issue, Mr Joyce, who is deputy Prime Minister, blasted the WA premier for breaking with an edict John Howard issued in 2001 that One Nation should always be preferenced last.
"Colin Barnett has been around the political game a long while and should seriously consider whether he thinks this is a good idea or whether he is flirting with a concept that ultimately will put his own side is in opposition," he told reporters in Canberra on Monday.
Mr Joyce said Liberal-National governments had a track record of success.
Tony Abbott told radio 2GB that One Nation should be preferenced ahead of Labor but the Nationals should be ahead of "everyone.
"Pauline Hanson is a different and better person today than she was 20 years ago," said Mr Abbott who led efforts to have her jailed after her first run at politics.
He said she now had a "more nuanced approach to politics" but that did not mean her party should be preferenced ahead of the Nationals who, he said, were an "alliance" partner in WA.
"One Nation above Labor and the National Party above everyone," he said.
But Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had a different view, saying it was up to the WA Liberals who they preferenced.
The WA Nationals and Liberals do not have a Coalition agreement and leader Brendan Grylls is prepared to form a minority government with whomever won the election - Labor or Liberal - so long as as they adopted his proposal for a tax on iron ore.
Mr Turnbull said: "It is a matter for the WA division. They have got to make their judgement based on their assessment of their electoral priorities. You have to remember their objective is to persuade people to vote Liberal and to return the Barnett Government."
Mr Turnbull agreed with other Liberals that One Nation was a more mainstream party these days.
"One Nation has got three Senate seats at the moment after the recount in WA, it is likely then to have four once again. It is a substantial cross bench party in the Senate and it is taking a policy position on a wide range of issues," he said.
"It is not a single issue party or a single personality party. We deal with it constructively and respectfully because we respect the fact that each of those One Nation senators has been democratically elected.
"The Australian people chose to put them in the Senate and we deal with them."
In a further sign Mr Howard's edict is dead, Queenslander and Trade Minister Steven Ciobo said on Monday morning the Liberal-National Party in his home state was likely to do preference deals with One Nation in the state election expected later this year.
Polling shows One Nation winning up to 23 per cent of the primary vote in Queensland.
"That's a fair swag of voters, we can't be dismissive of that," Mr Ciobo told ABC radio.
That didn't mean the Coalition should embrace or "cuddle up " to One Nation policies, just as Labor would argue it didn't adopt all the "kooky" polices of the Greens when it preferenced the minor party.
"What we've got to do is make decisions that put us in the best possible position to govern, ideally obviously with the support of the vast majority of people in Queensland," Mr Ciobo said.
Mr Ciobo said there were some One Nation policies he rejected unequivocally, but he noted the minor party generally supported the government's legislation in the Senate.
"There's a certain amount of economic rationalism, a certain amount of an approach that is reflective of what it is we're trying to do ... in a fiscally responsible way," Mr Ciobo said.
"They've signed up to that much more than Labor."
Victorian Liberal Party president Michael Kroger also defended doing deals with One Nation while one Nationals MP, who did not want to be identified, said WA Nationals deserved no sympathy because it they were prepared to govern with Labor.
In WA, the Liberal Party preferences will go to One Nation in regional Upper House seats while One Nation will preference the Liberals above Labor in Lower House seats.
-with AAP
