LNP Member for Herbert Phil Thompson has opened the door to a One Nation preference deal in his North Queensland seat, telling Sky News on Sunday he'd "work with anyone and everyone" to remove the Albanese Labor government.
Asked by a voter for his view on a preference deal with Pauline Hanson's party, Thompson said his local view was clear. "I said, well, my view locally is to make sure that we get rid of a bad Labor government federally," he said. "I will work with anyone and everyone that wants to achieve that."
Thompson said preferences worked differently in different seats and that the Coalition needed to "be serious" about removing Labor.
Image: screen grab, via Channel 7. Phil Thompson in military fatigues during a Channel 7 broadcast segment.
Thompson's record: wounded in Afghanistan, OAM for veterans' welfare
Thompson isn't speaking from the backbench. He's the Shadow Minister for Defence Industry and Shadow Minister for Defence Personnel under Opposition Leader Angus Taylor, and the federal member for Herbert since 2019. At the 2025 federal election he held the Townsville seat with 63.41% after preferences, a swing of 1.64% in his favour against a national tide that wiped out Coalition MPs across the country.
Thompson enlisted in the Australian Army at 17, served with the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment based in Townsville, and was wounded on operations in Afghanistan in 2009. He competed at the Invictus Games in London in 2014 and coached the powerlifting and wheelchair rugby teams at the Orlando Games in 2016.
In 2018 he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for service to the welfare of war veterans, and named Queensland's Young Australian of the Year. He was part of the political push that led to the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide.
Suspended from parliament in May for calling Albanese a liar
Thompson was removed from the House of Representatives for 24 hours in May 2026 after refusing to withdraw his statement that the Prime Minister was a liar. It was the first lower house suspension in nearly five years.
The dispute concerned Labor's decision to cap veterans' allied health support at $5,000, which Thompson said would be exhausted within two to three months for many veterans on serious treatment plans.
In his own words on the day: "Capping veterans' health support at $5,000 has nothing to do with the Royal Commission recommendations. This cruel cap will leave veterans without the critical health support they need."
His objection to Labor on veterans' policy isn't abstract. It's about a portfolio he's personally lived.
Video: Phillip Thompson OAM MP, via X (@PhilThompsonOAM). Phil Thompson tells parliament Labor's response to interest rate rises, insurance premiums and cost of living pressure has been to "send hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars overseas, including to the Taliban."
Taylor, Abbott and Pasin: the federal preference debate
Thompson's comments come days after Angus Taylor told reporters he wanted Australians' first preferences but the Coalition would "work … with whoever we can to get rid of this rotten Labor government". New Liberal Party President and former prime minister Tony Abbott went further, telling The Australian Financial Review "as a general rule, it makes sense for parties of the right to preference each other just as parties of the left have always done".
South Australian Liberal MP Tony Pasin went a step further again, calling for the Coalition and One Nation to coordinate which seats each party would contest. Taylor publicly ruled that out, telling reporters in Perth "there'll be no carve-up of seats, and what we're going to be doing is carving up the Labor party".
Thompson's position sits between those views. He isn't endorsing a national seat carve-up. He's saying that in his seat, in his region, he isn't going to lecture voters about who they shouldn't work with.
Polling: One Nation overtakes Labor for the first time
The backdrop is the steepest shift in Australian voting intention in a generation. The latest Newspoll, conducted between 1 and 4 June by The Australian, put One Nation on 31% of the primary vote, Labor on 30% and the Coalition on 18%. It's a record high for One Nation and the worst Labor result since the Gillard years.
Roy Morgan polling from the same week had One Nation at 29.5%, Labor on 26% and the Coalition on 17.5%, the first time One Nation has led both major parties in a Roy Morgan poll. Newspoll had Anthony Albanese's net approval at minus 24, with 60% of voters dissatisfied. That figure is worse than Scott Morrison's career worst of minus 22.
A YouGov poll for Sky News (conducted 26 May to 2 June) had Albanese's net approval at minus 26, with 60% dissatisfied.
The "Fire the Liar" fundraiser
Pauline Hanson's "Fire the Liar" campaign has raised $3,806,790 from 62,085 Australians, on its way to a $4 million goal, according to the live donation tracker on the One Nation donation page.
Anthony Albanese has publicly cast doubt on the legitimacy of the fundraising. Hanson has since brought in an independent auditor to verify the figures.
A shift the Coalition is still catching up to
Labor has sharpened its language on One Nation as the polls have moved. The Coalition is rethinking decades of orthodoxy on preference flows. Thompson, holding a North Queensland seat where conservative and populist vote share runs deep, has stated his position plainly. If the goal is removing Labor, that conversation doesn't end at the door of the party currently leading on the primary vote.
Thompson's position is now on the record. The next federal election is due in 2028.
