Opinion polls reveal One Nation has overtaken the coalition as the nation's second most popular political movement in the wake of the Bondi terror attack.
A bombshell Newspoll, putting One Nation on a first preference share of 22 per cent and the coalition at 21 per cent, will heap pressure on Liberal leader Sussan Ley as her party continues its post-election soul-searching.
Opposition home affairs spokesman Jonno Duniam was less than effusive when asked if it was damaging to her leadership.
"You could cut this any which way," he told ABC News.
"You could blame her, you could blame her shadow cabinet, you could blame a range of people. We've got work to do as a team, or else those numbers will never change."
The survey of 1224 Australians reported in The Australian on Monday showed One Nation's support surged seven percentage points over summer while the coalition's fell by three.
It's the first time One Nation has outpolled the coalition in the long-running survey and backs up a DemosAU poll, published by Capital Brief earlier in January, that showed Senator Hanson's party level with the coalition.
The polls underscore this is more than the usual mid-cycle wobble, political strategist Kos Samaras said.
"It's a monumental crisis on the right: the conservative vote is fragmenting, the Liberal brand is bleeding legitimacy, and One Nation is vacuuming up the authentic right space that the coalition keeps trying (and failing) to straddle," he wrote on social media platform X.
Looking to shed the tag of a fringe party of protest, One Nation must prove capable of delivering sound policies and provide a genuine alternative to voters concerned about mass migration and high energy prices, Senator Hanson told radio 3AW Melbourne.
Voters aren't the only ones abandoning the coalition for One Nation.
Former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce jumped ship from the Nationals to One Nation before parliament broke for the summer.
Mr Joyce said a change was happening in politics in Australia and across the globe, and people were sick of being taken for granted.
In a silver lining for Ms Ley, voters rated her response to the Bondi attack much more favourably than Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's.
In a Resolve poll published by Nine newspapers on Monday, more than half of 1800 respondents rated Ms Ley's response as good and 29 per cent rated it poor.
Only 32 per cent rated the prime minister's response as good, with 56 per cent rating it poor.
Mr Albanese said One Nation had been a divisive force since its inception.
"They promote division, and I don't want to see One Nation with a higher vote than the coalition," he told ABC Radio Melbourne.
Labor still held a 55-45 lead over the coalition on a two-party preferred basis in the Newspoll, while Resolve put the government ahead 52-48.
