Federal politicians are lining up to declare One Nation's run of success over in the wake of the party's underwhelming result in the Western Australian state election.
The right-wing populist party's preference deal with the Liberal Party has also faced renewed criticism, labelled a mistake by Pauline Hanson and Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce. But, despite the reaction, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann refused to rule out a similar arrangement at the next federal election.
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On the back of a brutal swing against outgoing Premier Colin Barnett's Liberal government, Labor will assume power with more than 42 per cent of the vote. The election was also seen as the next big test for the resurgent One Nation, with polls predicting approximately 10 per cent support or higher.
But the party attracted a lower house primary vote of just 4.7 per cent. In the upper house, One Nation had hoped to gain at least three seats with a mind to holding the balance of power. They now look set to win only one - with the help of Liberal preferences.
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Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese said "the mob have worked [Senator Hanson] out". He labelled the result a "rejection" of the party and a warning for the Liberals.
"She's good at identifying problems and grievances but she doesn't provide solutions. And the deal with the Liberal Party showed her to be just another political party looking to put people into Parliament rather than someone who acts as a matter of principle and I think it hurt both of them," Mr Albanese told ABC radio.
Mr Joyce said the Liberals had a "bad day at the office", One Nation had a "shocker" and called their preference deal a "mistake".
"All the imbroglio with regards to preferences means people start to over-assess and exaggerate what they think the support is of their new partner and they also just confuse their constituencies. So it's in the Liberal Party's interests to be close to the National Party and it's in the National Party's interests to be close to the Liberal Party," he said.
"You rate your preferences in the form of who you would like to run the country first, or the state first, and who you would like to run the country or the state second, third, fourth, fifth. And who you definitely don't want to run the country and they go down the bottom."
But Mr Joyce's federal Coalition colleague, Senator Cormann, defended the arrangement as necessary because of the Liberals' weak primary vote in the state.
"If we wanted to minimise losses, maximise our chances of holding onto seats, we needed to be able to source preferences and clearly, these weren't going to come from Labor and the Greens," the senior WA Liberal told ABC's Insiders program.
He said the decision had been made after internal party polling showed primary support hovering at around 30 per cent.
Senator Cormann also declined to rule out a deal at the federal level, saying "these are judgements that will be made at the right time. I can't make them".
Asked at a press conference if he should have intervened in the preference deal in WA, Mr Turnbull said: "Preferences are a matter for the relevant division of the party and that was a matter for the Western Australian party."
Asked if he would rule out a further preference deal at the national level he said: "[Preference deals] are always entered into with the intention and objective of maximising the vote of the parliamentary Liberal Party," he said. "At the next federal election, which is two years away, all preference decisions will be considered by the party organisation closer to the election."
In the wake of the WA result, two Liberal backbencher have hit out at the preference deal. Victorian MP Tim Wilson said the party "shouldn't follow Putin-fawning PHON (Pauline Hanson's One Nation). We are not PHON-lite. We are Liberals, and proud of it." Senator Dean Smith said it "starved the government of much needed oxygen".
One Nation supporters had also expressed displeasure with the deal and, on Saturday night, Senator Hanson said "it was a mistake".
She contended that her party's vote had been hurt because voters wanted to throw Mr Barnett out of office like "stale milk".
A bigger test of how sustainable One Nation's return is will be the upcoming Queensland election. The party has deeper roots and an established party machinery in Senator Hanson's home state.